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THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 




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THE 

SHAMELESS 

INNOCENT 


MAXWELL LAURIE ^ 

II 



NEW YORK 

DUFFIELD AND COMPANY 
1924 





Copyright, 1924, by 
Duffield and Company 



SEP II 




Printed in U.S. A. 

©CIA 800795 



"Vvo 


' 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

































CHAPTER I 

“ Yes, he’s a fine dog,” said the little groom. The 
little groom was a Cockney, and what he actually said 
was “ Yuss, 'e's a fine dawg.” Having indicated the 
dialect to you, I shall now discontinue it. 

“ He’s a beauty,” said the appreciative friend with 
whom he was conversing, “ I wouldn't say but what he 
was a fighter.” 

“ Did you ever know an Irish terrier as wasn't ? ” 
retorted the little groom. “ You can bet your boots 
he’s a fighter.” 

The terrier was at the end of a steel chain, and wore a 
stout leather collar adorned with brass studs and a brass 
plate bearing name and address. The dog’s owner, 
General Bellamy, was accustomed to say that a fighting 
dog ought always to have that sort of collar. As a rule, 
he would explain, fighting dogs set to work by getting 
a good grip of each other's collars. They think they are 
doing great things, bless them, and then when you 
separate them you find that there is precious little harm 
done on either side. 

“I'm taking him to an address on Campden Hill,” 
the groom continued. “ His master is off by this 
train.” 

He indicated with his thumb the boat train, or Con¬ 
tinental express, which was due to depart a few minutes 
later from the Victoria railway station, London. 

Two ladies came to a halt near the dog. They looked 
about them, evidently searching for some friend. 

“ I don’t think we can wait any longer,” the elder 
of the two at last said. “ I shall miss my train if we do. 
Will you tell your cousins that we w T aited till the last 
moment ? You will take a cab and go straight home, 
dearest, won't you ? ” 

A porter, in anxious attendance with hand baggage, 
suggested : “ Better find your place, ma’am. It's only 


2 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

five minutes now.” But the younger lady suddenly 
caught sight of the Irish terrier. 

” Oh Auntie!” she cried rapturously. " What a 
darling dog ! Isn't he perfect ? ” 

She stooped down to pat the terrier. 

” Better take care, Miss,” said the groom. “ I don't 
guarantee him. He may be a bad-tempered one for 
aught I know.” 

” Glorinda, do take care,” the elder lady remonstrated. 
” You are so reckless with dogs.” 

Glorinda stooped lower, to make friends with the dog. 
The little groom's eyes kindled with the frankest admira¬ 
tion of her personal appearance as well as of her courage. 
Then the girl suddenly caught sight of the inscription on 
the name plate. “ Major-General John Bellamy ! 
Auntie, that must be your General Bellamy, the one you 
call Jacky.” 

” I daresay it is, my dear. Do let us be going.” 

But the niece showed no disposition to move. Some¬ 
thing further seemed to have struck her notice. She 
dropped on her knees and threw her arms fervently 
round the dog's neck. 

" Glorinda, really you are too silly.” 

But Glorinda looked up at her aunt, and said in 
hushed tones : “ Aunt Susan, he is called Dom.” 

This time the aunt was really startled. 

” How very extraordinary ! But do come along, 
dearest. We haven't a moment to spare.” 

But the niece was not to be dragged away from her 
discovery. ” Don't you see, auntie, if he belongs to 
General John Bellamy and is called Dom, he must be 
called after my father.” 

She seized the dog ecstatically in her arms. 

" Dom, Dom, you precious, precious darling.” She 
looked up at the groom. “ I'm seeing this lady off by the 
train. Will you wait here until I come back ? ” 

” With pleasure, Miss. I'll take him out of the crowd 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


3 

and wait for you in the baggage hall." With Cockney 
readiness he addressed the elder lady. 

“ General Bellamy is travelling by your train, ma'am." 

The porter, now in a state of nervous despair, raised 
his voice in a passionate appeal. The two ladies made 
for the gate in the barrier and passed through. The 
little groom resumed his conversation with his friend. 

“ The girl's a stunner, ain’t she ? " said his friend. 

“ She's a spirited one, she is. Look at her hair. Do 
you recollect that 'orse I was riding last spring ? Red 
Dunster was his name. His colouring was just like 
that. Red-gold. He wanted handling, Red Dunster did." 

His friend eyed him waggishly. “ The young lady 
might want a bit of handling too, don’t you think ? " 

“ Not a bit of it. Snaffle for her. Look at the way 
the dog took to her. She’s a good un' she is." 

Glorinda and her aunt Susan followed their porter, 
threading their way through the crowd on the platform. 
They arrived at the coach in which a place had been 
reserved for Miss Lancaster, and were on the point of 
entering it when they were startled by a greeting directed 
at them with an explosive energy which brought them 
to a sudden halt. 

“ God bless my soul, if it isn't Susan Lancaster ! " 
They turned to look at their interlocutor. He was a 
man past middle age, sturdy, shortish of stature, very 
square set, with a thick muscular neck and broad 
shoulders and a deep powerful chest. Nature had 
invested his hair with an irrepressible bristliness; the 
hair of his head bristled angrily, as did his close-clipped 
grey moustache; his kindly eyes were indued with a 
mock ferocity by the fact that they looked out from 
under a jungle of bushy eyebrow. 

" Why it’s Jacky ! " Miss Lancaster cried joyfully. 
" Glorinda, this is General Bellamy. Jacky, this is 
Dorn's girl, Glorinda." 

It seemed to be General Bellamy's custom to take a 


4 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

careful survey of new acquaintances. He took Glorinda’s 
hand and looked very directly into her eyes, which met 
his with a clear innocent frankness. After a few mo¬ 
ments his great chest heaved with a deep drawn breath. 

“ Dorn’s girl ? Yes, by Jove, you are Dorn's girl. 
There is no mistake about that.” 

He continued to hold her hand. 

“ Wonderful, wonderful,” he ejaculated. “ Dear old 
Dom. He feared nothing on God's earth. My best 
friend, my dear, my best friend.” 

As they shook hands, the qualities they had in com¬ 
mon, courage, honesty, native kindliness, greeted and 
recognised each other. 

“ Glorinda made friends with your dog,” said Miss 
Lancaster. ” So we were expecting to see you.” 

“ He’s a darling,” said Glorinda. 

“ It’s a shame to leave a dog. But I shan’t be away 
very long. Where are you going ? ” 

“ To Florence.” 

“ That’s grand. So am I. We must take our places 
now.” 

Aunt and niece kissed affectionately. 

” It is rather a shame one of your cousins is not 
coming to take you home. But you'll have a cab, 
dearest, won’t you ? And do take the greatest care of 
ydmrself. And we shall meet again in Florence in a 
fortnight.” 

General Bellamy shook hands again with Glorinda. 

” Look here,” he said gruffly, “ I don’t propose to 
lose sight of you now I've met you. And remember 
that you can depend on me. You young people are so 
self-confident. But you can never tell what’s going to 
happen. If you want me, send for me. Understand ? ” 

He scowled fiercely, and smiled, and swung away. 
And when the train glided out from the platform, 
Glorinda remained standing there alone, in a crowd of 
strangers. 


CHAPTER II 

During the journey to Dover, General Bellamy and 
Susan Lancaster were seated opposite each other in the 
Pullman car. They had been playmates in childhood 
and had met seldom since, and each had inevitable 
changes to betray to the observation of the other. 

The General was a man of sturdy frame and rough 
exterior. His rapidly greying hair was of the inflexible 
texture that defies the art of the hairdresser. His 
complexion marked him down as one who had spent his 
working life in the open air and in the tropics. He 
could not help changing physically with the passing of 
so many years, but in the character of him there was 
little alteration. Courage, simplicity, a kind heart, an 
unsuspicious mind, a habit of plain-speaking, these 
unsubtle things abide with a man and keep him young, 
while the more complex natures are amassing their poor 
treasure of wrinkled experience. So that Miss Lan¬ 
caster had no trouble in recognizing the Jacky of her 
childhood. Nor had General Bellamy any difficulty in 
identifying in this elderly woman the same personality 
as had charmed him in the young girl. Susan Lancaster 
had as a girl been refined, gracious, elegant; she was 
still so. But the years had added to her face a subtle 
element which had not been there before. When 
Dominic Swift had swooped down on the country 
vicarage and had carried Susan Lancaster's sister away 
to India, had Susan Lancaster loved Dominic ? How 
much had she suffered by the preference given to her 
sister ? General Bellamy did not know ; nobody knew, 
except Susan Lancaster herself. And after Dominic's 
departure, Susan had relapsed into a cloistered rural 
seclusion. As the General looked at her now, he could 
very easily imagine her pure unworldly face set in a 
nun’s wimple. He had always had a deep respect for 


5 


6 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

her; she was one of the few people with whom he had 
ever attempted to soften his manners. “ Give me your 
ticket, Susan," he said, peremptorily. She handed over 
to him her book of railway coupons. 

“ Now I want your passport," he pursued. “ Also 
your baggage receipt." 

Miss Lancaster smiled, and gave them to him. “ The 
same old Jacky," she said. “ Always taking charge of 
everybody." 

“ I make all payments, you understand," he went on 
fiercely. " When we arrive at Florence, I present my 
bill to you, and you will discharge it." 

“ I will indeed," she laughed. “ You can’t imagine 
what a comfort it will be to me.” 

“ And your keys for the Customs at Calais," he added. 
He tapped his pockets one after another briskly. 

" Sterling money, foreign currency, passports and 
tickets, keys, eyeglasses, pipe and baccy, everything 
in its place. Gad, a railway journey is small beer, but 
it’s the nearest I ever get to the old times in India, when 
I used to take time-expired drafts down to Bombay. 
That was a tough job, my dear. Ha ! " 

She looked at him with a touch of sadness in her eyes. 
Jack Bellamy had been the noisiest and roughest of all 
the playmates of her childhood, always hectoring and, 
one would have said, if one hadn’t known what a kind 
creature he was, bullying. And now it was thirty years, 
forty years, and here was the same old Jacky Bellamy, 
explosive, masterful, truculent. 

“ I hope I shan’t give you as much trouble as your 
time-expired men." 

" You ! " 

He looked at her with an expression which a stranger 
would have judged to signify an immeasurable con¬ 
tempt. “ You ! I put you in my pocket in London and 
produce you again in Florence. There's nothing in it. 
Nothing in it." 

She smiled again. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


7 


" There’s a good deal in it,” she said gently. 

He brushed her gratitude to one side with a brusque 
gesture of impatience. 

After a short silence he said," It was odd your 
niece meeting my dog. He’s a direct descendant 
of one that Dom gave me out in India. Gad, 
my dear, how it brings it all back to me. Now I'll 
tell you something. Deuced clever it was. Wonderful 
fellow, Dom. He could do anything. One day in mess 
we were all talking about the effect it had on a man when 
he was out a long time by himself in the jungle. One of 
us said he always took the Decline and Fall out to camp 
with him, and by the time he got back to headquarters 
he was talking Gibbon, thinking Gibbon, and dreaming 
Gibbon. Another man said he had taken out the 
Ingoldsby Legends once, and by the time he had been out 
for a fortnight, everything he said fell into the queerest 
sort of rhymes. Now Dom was there. He was sitting 
there patting his terrier’s head. That’s what brings it 
all back to me. He said that Browning had queerer 
rhymes than Ingoldsby, and the other chap challenged 
him to produce a good one from Browning. Dom 
didn't hesitate one second. He recited : 

Know'st why my dog loveth me 
'Stead o' Bings, Baxter or Bellamy ? 

Tush man ! cease prating. I'll tell. 

'Tis 'cause he liketh the smell o'me." 

General Bellamy burst out into a loud roar of enjoy¬ 
ment. “ Gad, I had almost forgotten that.” 

Miss Lancaster smiled kindly but seemed puzzled. 

“ Is it really Browning ? ” she asked. “ I know my 
Browning pretty well and I can’t think where that 
comes in.” 

The General roared again. 

“ Of course it’s not Browning. It’s Dom. He made 
it up on the spur of the moment. Bellamy, smell o' me. 
Hal Ha ! Wonderful fellah ! ” 

“ Dear Dom. He was never at a loss.” 


8 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

They were silent with old memories for a little, and 
then the General spoke. 

“ So you're going to Florence, are you ? So am I. 
It’s wonderful how everybody drifts back to Florence. 
My sister drifts there every now and then. You 
remember Thomasina ? The same old Thomasina. 
She has sent for me on urgent business. Ha ! Ha ! ” 
He laughed noisily. “ Thomasina’s urgent business ! 
I like that. She’s always in a hurry, dying or some¬ 
thing.” 

Miss Lancaster smiled ; she did not seem to consider 
the remark brutal. 

" And you go straight away to help her. It’s just 
like you, Jacky. She knows she can depend upon you. 
You men don’t realize what a comfort that is. I suppose 
you will be staying with her.” 

” No, Susan,” he shouted emphatically.” I will not 
be staying with Thomasina. She is on the economical 
tack now. She lives on tomatoes and maccaroni, 
goodness knows why. I’ll find a shakedown somewhere 
and I’ll drag out Thomasina to a good restaurant twice 
a day.” 

“ Come to our pension. The Villa Stellini. There’s 
room for you.” 

*' I could always trust your taste, Susan. I’ll come 
with you to your villa. You know,” he added penitently, 
" Thomasina’s a good soul but she loves a crisis. So 
I allow her one, twice every year, for a period not exceed¬ 
ing one week. That’s her allowance.” 

“ Dear Thomasina. She’s not changed a bit.” 

General Bellamy’s thoughts turned to his friend’s 
niece, the girl who had just seen them off at Victoria. 
He ejaculated : ” So that’s Glorinda.” 

“ That’s my Glorinda.” 

“ H’m. She joins you in a fortnight ? ” 

“ Yes. She was to have travelled out with me. But 
you know, when I came up to town again and saw what 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 9 

things were really like, the old feelings swept over me. 
You know how it happens, don’t you ? There was 
Glorinda, that lovely girl, with absolutely not a frock 
fit to be seen in. I couldn’t take her abroad like that, 
could I ? ” 

“ I disagree entirely,” he retorted, scowling ferociously, 
as if determined to intimidate her. 

She laughed happily. It reminded her so of old 
times. It was no use being afraid of Jacky, as many 
people were. His subalterns always feared General 
Bellamy at first, and General Bellamy simply detested 
any youngster who wouldn't stand up to him. He went 
on, “ It doesn’t matter a particle what sort of dress you 
put a girl like that into.” 

" Doesn’t it, Jacky ? ” she enquired, in a deceptive 
tone of meekness. 

” Not a particle. You could dress her in a sack and 
she’d carry it off.” 

“ Oh my dear General, how little you know.” 

He laughed boisterously. 

" Not so little as you think. And after all, dress 
doesn’t really matter. It’s the girl that counts. She 
was a baby when I saw her last. A baby in her father’s 
arms. Seventeen years ago, by Gad. At Umballa. 
Dominic was holding her in his arms. Mighty proud of 
his little girl he was. She's the glory of India, says 
Dom, and I shall call her Glorinda.” 

” He wouldn’t have her christened.” 

” Not he. Dom would have no truck with parsons.” 

“ I attended to the christening when she was sent 
home. Of course I had to call her Glorinda, but I gave 
her a second name, too.” 

" Didn’t Dom object to your having her christened ? ” 

“ Not a bit. He laughed and said it didn’t matter. 
And anyhow, he said, it was a poor opinion that hadn't 
a double edge to it.” 


10 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

" That was just like old Dom. What was the second 
name you gave her ? ” 

" Mary. Glorinda Mary.” 

General Bellamy nodded approval. 

" Glorinda's a bit Pagan all by itself. Mary's a good 
chaser, so to speak.” 

" What do you mean by a good chaser ? ” 

" A chaser's the water after the whiskey. That's the 
way they take it in America.” 

" Jacky, what an idea ! ” 

” How did Dominic like Mary ? ” 

“ He loved it.” 

” It's a grand name, You can't beat it.” 

“ He used to call her Star of the Sea and Tower of 
Ivory.” 

“ Tower of Ivory ! ” General Bellamy's thoughts 
dwelt on the superb girl, whom he had just seen waving 
her farewells from the station platform. 

“ Yes,” he reflected inwardly, “ she would be like a 
tower of ivory. And with that mass of gold red hair 
crowning it all.” 

“ Dom had the same hair,” he continued aloud, “ but 
he always had it sheared close with horse clippers. Then 
some artistic ass came along and told him he had a 
beautifully shaped head. Damn it all, says Dom, I 
can't cut my head off, can I ? ” 

“ Poor Dom. His death was most tragic.” 

“ What could you expect ? He would stalk tigers on 
foot. Where there's no danger, there's no fun, that was 
Dorn’s motto. I told him it was suicide. But you’ve 
done it yourself, said he. Well, so I had, and an infernal 
young ass I was. But I never went out and asked for 
it like Dom. Poor Dom. And that’s the baby l She 
had a head like a ball of gold, and tawny eyes like her 
daddy’s.” 

" She has them still. She’s beautiful, don't you 
think ? ” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


ii 


" Beautiful ! Pah ! ” he exploded. " Beauty’s a 
cheap word nowadays. You can’t open a picture paper 
without seeing a row of minxes all labelled beautiful. 
The beautiful Miss This, the well-known society beauty 
Mrs. That, or Lady T'other, along-side of winners of 
thousand pound beauty competitions. Pah ! it makes 
me sick.” 

” I agree with you. It’s detestable. But tell me what 
you think of my niece.” 

General Bellamy knitted his bushy eyebrows. 

" It's a case of Eclipse first and the rest nowhere.” 

" You really think so ? ” 

" She’s in a class by herself.” 

Susan Lancaster looked him calmly in the face and 
said, " She doesn't know it.” 

The General shook his head in violent dissent. ” My 
dear lady, tell that to the Marines.” 

" She doesn't, I assure you.” 

Again the General shook his head. 

" Impossible ! ” 

Miss Lancaster explained. 

"You know what Dom was ? ” 

" I do indeed. Dom was, if I may be pardoned the 
expression, a devil of a fellow.” 

" And Glorinda's temperament was likely to be the 
same as Dorn's, was it not ? ” 

" Well, after all, you know, a man's a man- and a 
woman's a woman.” 

" Still there was a danger ? ” 

" Perhaps. Yes, I daresay you're right.” 

" So I brought her up quietly, oh very, very quietly, 
in my cottage away out in a country place. She had a 
governess.” 

" Then you kept her busy with her lessons.” 

" Glorinda's no blue-stocking. But she has been 
nicely educated. She's beginning to suspect that she's 


12 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

unusual, because people stare at her. Even these two 
days in London have made a difference/* 

“ They would,” laughed the General. 

Susan Lancaster looked at him hesitatingly. At last 
with diffidence she ventured. 

" In other things-,” she paused. The General 

concentrated on her. She laughed a little nervously. 
” I must confess-/’ she hesitated again. 

” Come now, what must you confess ? You said 
other things. Rather important, what ? ” 

“I'm afraid she's unusually ignorant of—other 
things.” 

“ Ha ! ” General Bellamy eyed her shrewdly. “ That 
won't do, you know. She’s got to know these other 
things. It’s no use keeping young people too long in the 
dark. If you don’t hurry up, someone else will do it.” 

“ I was afraid of that. I was going to do it in 
Florence.” 

The General’s small eyes twinkled. How much 
information and precisely of what sort would this sweet 
and charming and cloistered maid of fifty-five impart 
to that other sweet and charming and cloistered maid of 
eighteen ? How much was she in a position to impart ? 
How much did she know herself ? He chuckled inwardly. 
" Well,” he reflected in silence, “ we all think we know 
a deuce of a lot.” 

” They do grow up so quickly,” Miss Lancaster said 
sadly. “ To-day she's a rosebud ; to-morrow she’ll be 
a flower in full bloom.” 

” She's in full bloom already.” 

” Oh don't say that. I can't bear it. It means losing 
her.” 

The General grunted. 

" H'm. And she joins you in a fortnight.” 

” Yes." 

“ And then she’s to be initiated into the ways of this 
wicked world ? Other things, as you call them.” 




THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


13 


She saw doubt in his eye. 

“ What have you got in your mind, Jacky ? Tell me.” 

“ I was just thinking. She’s receptive ? ” 

" Intensely.” 

” She’s having a fortnight in London ? ” 

“ Well, why not ? She’ll be very busy and she’s 
staying with her cousins.” 

" You won't have to trouble.” 

“ About what ? ” 

" About telling her—other things.” 

" Don’t you think so? ” 

A flash of anxiety crossed her face. But it gave way 
to a bright and confident smile. 

" Ah, you don’t know Glorinda. She’s the dearest 
girl in the world.” 


CHAPTER III 


Gently and considerately, as if fearing to snap the cords 
of love that bound together the passengers and the friends 
whom they were leaving behind them, the train glided 
out of the station. The last fluttering handkerchief 
was lost to view; the last eager head was withdrawn 
into a place of safety. And Glorinda turned away, 
towards London. 

She smiled as she thought of her aunt's old friend, 
General Bellamy. She was glad that her aunt had found 
someone to look after her. The General, with his kind 
and masterful ways, seemed fully equal to the obligation. 
But to Glorinda the General was more than that. He was 
a link, a strong link, with the thrilling past that held 
her father. He had been her father's friend, his best 
friend, and so to her he was both a new friend and an old 
one. When she had looked straight into General 
Bellamy's eyes, she had seen strength there, and a 
kindly helpfulness, and loyalty; and on the instant 
there was added to her a new thing, a thing which she 
understood now, as she had not understood it before. 

“ Friendship," she mused. “ That is friendship. 
Now I know." 

Even Aunt Susan had now become more of a link 
with that precious past. General Bellamy’s explosive 
heartiness had somehow thrown a flashing light on a far 
distant intimacy ; it had thrown into relief the vitality 
and worth of an ancient friendship that had seemed 
expiring. It was very dear, Glorinda thought, but there 
was a sadness in it. 

Glorinda had been for some time aware that she and 
her aunt were gradually changing places. The aunt, 
from being the protector, was becoming the protected 
one. How odd it was to think of her aunt and the gruff 
old General ever having been children and playmates 
14 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 15 

together. How odd it was to think of their ever having 
been young at all. How strange that they should still 
be the same people as when they were children. One 
ought to be very very kind to the old, she reflected. 
There was so little of anything left for them. 

It was a curious crowd on the platform and one not 
to be easily analyzed by a girl who had come straight 
up from the country. Some of those who were there 
seemed to have a sort of status, as regular frequenters. 
They were the permanent acolytes of the seasonal rites 
of seeing-off. 

The names of foreign resorts and hotels, of head- 
waiters and noted chefs rattled glibly from their lips. 
Alphonse of the Bristol had gone to the Ritz, and Karl 
of the Ritz had gone to the Continental. Marietta was 
still at the Carlton. Lady This was going to Rome, and 
Bertie That was going first to one place and then on to 
another. The quick disjointed chatter was eagerly 
swallowed by listeners who made mental notes of it and 
adjusted their programmes accordingly. The small 
arms ammunition of social intercourse was being dis¬ 
tributed and pouched at high speed. An alien and 
unregarded note in the loquacious crowd might perhaps 
be struck in some tense-faced Anglo-Indian woman, 
strung up to endure a three years’ separation from her 
husband, and hastening blindly back to her children and 
her cheap lodgings. 

Glorinda moved slowly towards the exit barrier. The 
small knots of gossipers amused her with their glibness 
and the metallic hardness of their speech. The un¬ 
dressedness of the women too was entertaining, as a 
novelty. When they moved, their figures quivered 
without restraint. Glorinda was puzzled until she 
suddenly remembered having been told to look out for 
jazz. This to be sure was jazz ; a jigging light-hearted 
inconsequence, an affectation of a sort of crazy flippancy, 
very odd. Glorinda thought they looked quite good- 


i6 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


natured and harmless, really. An elderly girl, dressed in 
bright green, with a flamingo feather boa round her naked 
neck, swung away from a group and cannoned back¬ 
wards into Glorinda, and, without looking round, said 
“ Damn.” Then she turned perfunctorily, and looked 
Glorinda up and down. Her eyes snapped curiously, 
and she turned to her friends, and they all looked 
curiously and their eyes snapped. There was seemingly 
something in Glorinda which they had ceased to be 
accustomed to encounter. An old-fashioned beau who 
had witnessed Glorinda's yielding movements and her 
gracious kindly smile would have described her as 
possessing natural nobility and courtesy. Not so the 
jazz girls. 

“ Some girl.” 

” Gustus John.” 

" And then more.” 

“ Coat and skirt I ” 

A silly giggle. 

“ Straight out of the ark.” 

“ Into the movies.” 

” I want to dress her.” 

” Paint her.” 

” Me too.” 

And so on, snap snap. 

Glorinda moved placidly on towards the barrier. She 
felt disposed to smile at these people, who were effective 
in their own way, like marionettes, although their way 
was not Aunt Susan's way. I could never, she reflected, 
talk in flashes and jerks as they do. She looked 
curiously at the men ; caught indeed a glance or two 
directed at her, and averted more or less quickly. 
Already keenly aware of being different from this throng, 
she thought, “ I suppose it’s my country clothes and 
boots. And that dreadfully conspicuous hair of mine.” 
The women, she noticed, did not mind staring. They 
looked her up and down. They were thinking what they 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 17 

could make of her, but Glorinda did not know that. It 
was a question, really, whether she took the greater 
interest in them, or they in her. To a girl from a secluded 
country parish they were bewildering, although an adept 
would have found them rather specially easy to classify. 
There were the shooting, ski-running, bridge-playing 
men ; there were also the restaurant and baccarat men ; 
there were the women who danced and golfed and 
ski-ed ; and then there were also the women who danced 
and lunched, and had themselves photographed for the 
picture papers in unsuitable sports’ costumes which 
they had purchased in Bond Street. And there were 
one or two adventurers, male and female ; hard-eyed, 
thin-lipped Casino people, with an infallible nose for a 
novice. But they all seemed to be, at any cost, amusing 
or amused. Loath to leave the platform, they chattered 
with a readiness and rapidity that startled Glorinda, who 
was accustomed to her Aunt Susan and an Oxonian vicar 
and slow-speaking West-country rustics. 

A voice at her shoulder roused her. 

“ Miss Lancaster’s niece ? ” 

Glorinda smiled at the lady who had addressed her. 

“ Yes. How did you know me ? ” 

“ I was standing near your aunt’s carriage when 
General Bellamy came up. I'm sorry, but I couldn't 
help hearing all your names. I knew your aunt ages 
ago. She didn’t recognise me and there really wasn't 
time to explain.” 

” It was rather a rush, wasn't it ? ” 

“ It always is, the last minute or two. You’ll send 
your aunt my love, won’t you, when you write ? I am 
Mrs. Tracey now, but she knew me as Millicent Smith.” 
” I won’t forget. I'm so glad you spoke.” 

The throng moved along the platform, making gradual 
progress towards the exit barrier. Here and there a 
lynx-eyed adventurer directed a measuring scrutiny at 
Glorinda and her new acquaintance. The tall girl from 


o 


i8 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


the country was exactly what she seemed to be ; but the 
lady with her ? What was she precisely ? Age, say 
forty-five. Complexion, moderately genuine. Dress, 
handsome, sober, and seeming to avoid the latest 
eccentricities. Face, undoubtedly handsome, but 
deeply lined. Eyes ? Here our adventurers pause. It 
is by the eyes and the mouth that one recognises the 
fraternity, the fraternity that is as ready to cut the 
throat of a member as of a stranger. Eyes and mouth, 
uncertain, then. And therefore the lady was no member 
of the fraternity. On the other hand, there was an 
intangible something. It was a doubtful case. They 
shrugged their shoulders. 

" This Mrs. Tracey," Glorinda was thinking, " seems 
to be making no particular effort to be friendly. Aunt 
Susan will want to know what she looks like after all 
these years." She regarded Mrs. Tracey steadily. 
Her companion suddenly looked up. It was a strange 
unguarded look. 

" She's afraid," thought Glorinda. " Poor thing. 
I wonder why." With an impulse of compassion she 
renewed the conversation. 

" I'm joining my aunt in a fortnight, at Florence." 

" You are staying in town ? " 

"Yes, with some cousins. They ought to have come 
here to meet me, but they are desperately casual people. 
Awfully kind, you understand." 

" Yes, I know." 

" Aunt Susan is dreadfully anxious about me," she 
laughed. 

" That's the way with us old people. There's no one 
with you then ? " 

" No. I'm alone in London," she laughed again. 
" Alone and helpless. Do I look helpless ? " 

Jt was a curious glance that the elder woman cast at 
her in reply. There was admiration in it and a sort 
of appeal. Glorinda again felt that sensation of amused 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 19 

compassion. Then a wild hope suddenly flashed across 
her mind. 

“ Did you know my father ? ” 

“ Who was he ? I don’t know your surname yet, you 
know.” 

“ My father was Dominic Swift.” 

The woman hesitated. Always before she spoke there 
was in her manner that suggestion that she was feeling 
her way cautiously. But to Glorinda she merely seemed 
timid. 

“ Was he very like you ? ” 

"lam the image of him.” 

" Then I believe I have met him.” 

“ Oh, how lovely. Tell me all about him. Where 
did you meet him ? ” 

” I only saw him once. It’s a curious coincidence. It 
was at a railway station. This very station.” 

“ Do tell me about it.” 

They had arrived near the exit barrier. The woman 
seemed to be nerving herself for some effort. 

” I wonder,” she said, deprecatingly, and looked up at 
Glorinda. 

“ What is it ? ” Glorinda asked kindly. She looked 
more closely at her new companion. Then, frankly : 
" What are you afraid of ? ” she asked. 

“ Nothing, I assure you, nothing.” 

But the expression was still there, the hunted look that 
betrays prolonged nervous strain. 

Glorinda’s stronger character was already asserting 
itself. This woman might be older and infinitely more 
experienced, but Glorinda, with effortless easy strength, 
was the master. The elder woman's self-possession 
seemed to be deserting her rapidly. ” How odd ! ” 
Glorinda reflected. " I thought she was a lady, but she 
isn’t quite.” She smiled. 

” You mustn't be afraid,” she said, putting her hand 
on the woman’s shoulder. The woman shrank a little 
and looked up. 


20 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


“ My nerves are all to pieces," she said. Then des¬ 
perately : "You must come and have lunch with me at 
my flat. It’s quiet there. A railway station isn’t a very 
good place. We can take a taxi." 

" This woman is in trouble,” Glorinda reflected in¬ 
wardly. " I think she wants to fall on my neck and tell 
me things. That will be a bore. But I want to hear 
about my father." Aloud she added, “ I shall be 
delighted." 

They passed the ticket barrier. 

" Would you mind waiting just one minute," Glorinda 
asked. “ There is a dog here. I have to see about him. 
I shan’t be a second." She moved away towards the 
baggage hall, and the woman waited. 

A man in a tall hat and fashionably cut clothes came 
and stood by her side. 

“ Have you lost her ? " he asked in an undertone. 

" No. She’ll be back immediately." 

“ Are you sure ? " 

“ Yes." 

“ Where are you taking her ? " 

" To the flat." 

With a sort of grunt the man moved away. She 
called out after him. 

“ Phil ! " 

" Yes.” 

She hesitated, and then she blurted out. “ Phil, 

I don’t want to do this." 

His reply was a glance, hard, cruel, savage. 

“ Phil," she pleaded. " Let me off this once. She’s 
—she’s such a dear." 

He came closer. In an undertone he snarled, “ You 
go to hell. I’ve got my eye on you. I’ll be following 
your taxi. I shall arrive the minute after you." 

He withdrew a few steps and turned half aside but 
continued to watch. 

She waited. She dabbed her eyes once quickly with her 
handkerchief. Then she seemed to pull herself together. 


CHAPTER IV. 


Glorinda turned to the right, and made for what was 
usually the quietest part of the station, the baggage- 
hall near the continental departure platform. When 
she entered it her attention was attracted by a crowd. 
She approached the fringe of it and looked over the 
people’s heads. She could not see what was in the centre 
of the crowd; but she heard a dog growling savagely, 
and she guessed that it was Dom. Very suddenly the 
growl changed into a fierce prolonged snarl of attack. 
Glorinda was a country girl; she loved all dogs and was 
good with them, and was not afraid of any dog. She 
forced her way into the crowd. The people, when she 
thrust them to one side, turned with Cockney good 
humour to protest. But when they caught sight of her, 
their remonstrances died away. Staring in silence, 
they yielded space to her and she made her way without 
difficulty to the centre of the throng. 

The little groom was in trouble with Dom. As far 
as the door of the baggage hall Dom had followed, 
straining at his leash, but still to a moderate extent 
under control. The door of the baggage hall was, 
however, the place where one lost sight of the ticket- 
barrier, and the ticket barrier was the place where Dorn’s 
master had disappeared. Beyond the door of the 
baggage hall, then, Dom refused to go. The little groom 
coaxed him and petted him. Dom paid no attention, 
but gazed eagerly out towards the great open space into 
which the train bearing his master had vanished. 
Whining and trembling, and giving every now and again 
a short sharp yelp of impatience, he set himself firmly 
with all four paws to resist the gradually increasing strain 
which was being applied to his collar. 

If you have considered the matter, you will have 
realized that the most difficult problem in your dog’s 
universe is presented to him when he is called on to 


21 


22 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

make up his mind whether you are leaving him for an 
afternoon, or for a week-end, or for ever. When he is 
young, he expects your return any minute, but when he 
has grown a little older, he has learnt that it is quite 
impossible to forecast anything with certainty. When 
you say to him, “ I'll be back on Monday, old man, 
the words have to him precisely the same significance 
as if you said, “ I’m off to Calcutta.” The task that 
confronts an experienced dog is to conjecture the length 
of the period during which he is to be separated from 
God. that is to say, his master, whom he loves 
unselfishly, as human beings do not frequently love their 
God. Dom, then, was engaged in the difficult process of 
making up his mind. He had seen his master packing 
his trunk, and all old dogs know this to be a very bad 
sign, and he was therefore prepared for the worst. 
But he wanted a little time in which to prepare himself 
to accept the desolating conviction that was creeping 
over him. Give Dom time to make up his mind and he 
will come along quietly. 

And the little groom knows a dog. Leave Dom and 
the little groom together, and they will soon come to an 
understanding, provided that nobody interferes with 
them. A little coaxing and petting ; then a little pull 
on the chain ; Dom stood firm. A little more coaxing 
and petting; Dom still held his ground. It was the 
groom’s patience against the dog’s determination to see 
things clearly. One or two cheerful Cockney passers-by 
took it into their frivolous heads to treat the matter 
humorously. They began to make fun of the little 
groom, who presently felt that his patience was wearing 
thinner. Then a serious person took it upon himself to 
offer advice, and the groom gladly retorted by consigning 
his interlocutor to Hades. Distressed by this blasphemy, 
a kind old lady intervened, and the little groom swore 
even more blasphemously under his breath, which is a 
much more dangerous form of swearing than doing it 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


23 


aloud. He tugged at the chain with more roughness and 
impatience, than he would otherwise have used, and Dom 
lost his temper. Like many Irish terriers, Dom had the 
Napoleonic temperament. With him, to will was to 
act. A fierce growl was followed instantaneously by a 
fighting snarl, and he launched himself against the 
heartless ruffian who was taking him away from his 
master. His canine teeth pierced the groom's gaiters 
and met in his calf, about three inches above the ankle. 
The groom succeeded in shaking him off and hurled him 
away to a distance of two or three yards. But the 
terrier with the reckless courage of his breed, again gave 
forth his terrible fighting snarl, and dashed at the 
man’s legs. The little man, alert and accustomed to 
dogs, drew back his right foot, and, with a perfectly 
timed kick, caught the terrier full in the face. It was at 
this moment that Glorinda arrived at the centre of the 
throng. She saw the dog, stunned for the moment and 
bleeding at the mouth, gathering his wits together for 
another spring. She ran to him and stooped over him, 
speaking to him by name and petting him. At the same 
moment a small dark-haired woman flew past her with an 
uplifted, and folded umbrella, and struck the groom a 
heavy blow on the face with it. 

“ You cowardly brute,” she shrieked, “ You cowardly 
brute. You ought to be killed.” And she raised her 
umbrella a second time. 

But Glorinda had soothed the dog in an instant, and 
the groom, his hands now free, grasped the little dark 
woman’s wrists. She struggled madly to release herself 
from his grip. But he held her without effort. 

" Come now, Miss, you’ve no call to say I'm a brute. 
Be easy now. He’s made a tidy 'ole in my leg, I can 
tell you. How am I going to exercise my 'orses with 
a leg like that ? Easy, Miss, easy. So, so—ooh then, 
so—ooh beauty,” he chanted, as if soothing a restive 
horse. 


24 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


Glorinda had lifted the dog from the ground, and was 
nursing him in her arms. 

“ I'll look after him," she said. " Where were you 
taking him ? " 

The groom released his grip of the small woman’s 
wrists, and looked at Glorinda and recognized her. 

" I knew she'd got a spirit," he reflected inwardly. 
Touching his hat and grinning he addressed her. 

"You can 'ave him, miss, and welcome. The General 
gave me five bob to take him 'ome. But it’s a dear five 
bob’s worth if I'm to lose a week’s work by it." 

He gave the address at which the terrier was to be 
delivered. Then he touched his hat again, and limped 
away. 

The crowd dispersed slowly. Those who had leisure 
went to a little distance and loitered there, casting stolen 
glances at Glorinda and the dog. 

" It was very brave of you," said Glorinda kindly to 
the little woman, who, still flushed and breathless after 
her wrestling with the groom, was standing beside her. 
The little woman shrugged her shoulders and turned 
down the comers of her mouth. 

“ It wasn’t brave, of course. It isn’t brave to hit a 
man. He can’t hit back. I wish to God they could. 
It would make things fairer." 

Her eyes lighted as she said this, and she laughed a 
curious short defiant laugh. 

Glorinda eyed her new acquaintance. She would be 
twenty-two years old, or perhaps a little more. She was 
thin, sharp-featured, nervous, strenuous, with shining, 
coal-black eyes : an indomitable spirit with a fierce 
hatred of cruelty, Glorinda judged her, admiring her at 
once, and feeling a motherly impulse to take charge 
of her. 

“ Well, I must deliver the dog at his address," she 
said. Her new friend looked at her with a serious shy 
reverence which amused Glorinda. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


25 


" May I come with you ? " 

“ Do, by all means." 

Then she suddenly remembered the woman who was 
waiting for her. 

" I'm sorry. I believe I’m engaged already." 

Her shrewd-eyed little friend cast a look at her. 
Glorinda saw enquiry in the glance. The word " be¬ 
lieve " seemingly required explanation. 

“ I mean," said Glorinda laughing, “ that I’ve never 
met the lady before and don’t know her from Adam." 

The small woman looked at her uncompromisingly. 

“ How long have you been in London ? " 

'* Two days." 

“ Were you ever in London before ? ’’ 

“ No." 

The small woman narrowed her eyes. "I’m a 
Londoner," she said tersely. 

Glorinda nodded. Had there not been another person 
waiting for her, she might have pursued this new 
acquaintance. However, as matters were, there seemed 
nothing to stay for. She put out her hand in farewell. 
The other took it. Her black restless eyes flashed to 
ont side, then to the other, and came to rest on Glorinda 
in obvious admiration. 

“ I can’t risk it," she said, suddenly. 

" What can’t you risk ? " 

“ I'm sorry I spoke aloud. Forgive me if I ask you 
something. How did you meet this lady ? " 

“ On the platform. She used to know my aunt ages 
ago." 

The little woman blushed furiously, and broke into 
fervent apologies. " Oh, I beg your pardon. I can't 
tell you how sorry lam. Of course if your aunt knew her, 
it's perfectly all right. You must have thought me 
abominably rude and interfering." 

Glorinda’s eyes, level and undisturbed, took in her 
confusion and disregarded it. 


26 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

" I see," she replied. " You suspected something." 
She smiled pleasantly and the little stranger seemed again 
overwhelmed with shame, 

" Forgive me. Good-bye." 

She held out her hand. Glorinda looked her up and 
down. 

" It’s quite true," she said, " that the lady introduced 
herself," 

" Oh, it wasn’t your aunt ? " 

" No. My aunt had left. But where's the harm in 
her speaking to me ? I shouldn't have any hesitation in 
speaking to a person whom I had seen once or twice." 

The little woman broke out again into apologies. 

" I’m dreadfully sorry. It’s hateful of me to be prying 
like this. But I can’t risk it. I couldn’t ever sleep 
again if there was anything wrong." 

“ Don’t you think I ought to know her ? Why ? She 
seems decent enough. It seems to me," she said laugh¬ 
ing, "I've got to trust one of you." 

" Not in the least. I’m not asking you to trust me. 
I should like to meet you again, but there’s no hurry 
about that. As for trusting me ! I should put you 
straight into a taxi and have you driven home." 

There was a pause of hesitation. 

" Well," Glorinda asked. " What do you propose I 
should do ? Take French leave and let the lady wait ? 
Suppose she does turn out to be my aunt’s old friend ? " 

For a minute the little woman seemed to be thinking 
hard. Then she said. 

" It's quite easy to test her. I’ll come up with you and 
say that you find that you have to go home. This lady 
will have a look at me. If she’s what I think she is, 
she'll throw up the sponge and vanish quickly. If she's 
all right, she’ll behave like an old friend. You just 
have to keep your eye on her. You’ll know the difference 
as soon as you see it." 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 27 

" How perfectly thrilling," cried Glorinda. " Do 
come quickly. I feel like Sherlock Holmes." 

They turned away from the baggage hall. As they 
were setting off towards the crowded platform, the 
little woman touched Glorinda's arm. " Another thing, 
if you don’t mind. Walk slowly and I’ll follow just a 
little behind." 

Glorinda flashed a smile of joyous excitement. 

The little woman, whose eyes were as needles, marked 
Mrs. Tracey down from some distance. 

" A harmless old thing," she reflected. " I believe 
I've made a fool of myself." 

Mrs. Tracey seemed absorbed and uneasy. She was 
not keeping watch, but was merely waiting there list¬ 
lessly for Glorinda to come back to her. Suddenly 
Glorinda’s companion noticed something. A tall, 
well-dressed man stepped to Mrs. Tracey's side. His 
lips moved. A person watching closely could have read 
from his lips the words, “ wake up." The woman 
started, and came to herself. The little dark woman 
smiled grimly, 

When they had come up near Mrs. Tracey, she said, 
" My friend finds that she has to go home. She has an 
engagement which she forgot." 

It was a critical moment. If the woman persisted, 
and tried to arrange a further meeting, it would be pretty 
clear that she was genuine. If on the other hand she 
was taken aback, and had no suggestion ready, she was 
a pretender. 

What the woman did was to clasp Glorinda's hand, 
and say with a gasp, " Oh, my dear, I'm so glad. No, I 
mean, I beg your pardon, I'm so sorry." 

"Perhaps," Glorinda began. But her companion 
cut her off abruptly. There was to be no exchanging of 
addresses if she could help it. 

" Come along," she said briskly. " Your taxi. You 
have no time to spare." 


28 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

They moved away. They were silent for a little. 
Then Glorinda said suddenly. 

“ After all, that woman couldn't have done me any 
harm, could she ? ” 

“ Couldn't she ? ” the other asked drily. 

“ What could she have done ? " 

“ Have you got it quite clear in your mind that your 
Mrs. Tracey was a liar and a deceiver ? She never knew 
your aunt. All the information that she had was picked 
up on the railway platform. Have you never heard that 
school girls who come up alone are met by people exactly 
like Mrs. Tracey ? And that they disappear and are 
never heard of again ? ” 

“ I don’t see any object in it,” Glorinda protested. 
” Who wants to be at the expense of keeping a school 
girl ? ” 

” I can’t tell you in this crowd. Come into the 
waiting-room. I hate telling you, but I’ve got to.” 

A few minutes later the two girls came out of the 
waiting-room. Glorinda was pale. 

“ You are sure of what you say ? ” 

“ It is part of my business to know about such things. 
I haven't told you the real devilment of it. I’d be 
ashamed to tell you. Ashamed of men, ashamed of 
women. Later, perhaps. No, I couldn’t. You’re too 
fine.” 

They took a cab. Dom sat on the opposite seat, 
looking wistfully at Glorinda ; he approved of Glorinda ; 
she was a kind friendly person. But where was his 
master ? Dom, spoken to, wagged his tail and whined a 
little. How long would master be away, he wanted to 
ask, and he looked pleadingly at his new friend. 

” What exquisite eyes these Irish terriers have,” 
Glorinda exclaimed. ” If one could judge by eyes, a 
dog ought to have a finer soul than any man.” 

“ He probably has.” 

Glorinda laughed. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


29 

“ Dom, darling, tell me. Have you got a soul ? 
You have lovely, lovely eyes, Dom.” 

She petted Dom in a way to which he had not been 
accustomed, and Dom enjoyed it thoroughly, and 
wagged his tail and made friends. 

“ No, you musn’t lick my hand. You may look into 
my eyes with your eyes. The poetry of them ! ” 

She turned to her new friend. 

“ What is your name, please ? ” 

" Tucker, Marcella Tucker.” 

“ Mine is Swift. Glorinda Swift.” 

’* Glorinda ? ” Her companion drew a deep breath of 
adoration. “ Oh how splendidly like you.” 

" I’m used to it,” Glorinda laughed. This little 
woman, she was thinking, has doggy eyes too, sometimes. 
It depends on what she is thinking about. 

" How far away is the place we are going to ? ” 

“ Only a few minutes. You said you were new to 
London ? ” 

“ It is my first time. I am not disappointed. 
I expected everything and I have got everything.” 

Marcella Tucker, Londoner, smiled faintly. 

” You will get used to it.” 

“ Never. I don’t want to get used to wonderful 
things. I want to keep on wondering at them.” After 
a little she added, “ Our little place in Somerset was 
wonderful, too. Deep, deep in the country. Old 
churches and old cottages. Look ! ” She indicated 
two people who were passing. “ There’s a young man 
out of Punch. And the girl’s a Shepperson.” 

" There are thousands of them in London.” 

“ As good as Shepperson ? ” 

" I was thinking of the young man.” 

“ I should call him quite pretty. I’m glad there are 
so many of them. I do love looking at nice things.” 

“ Do you paint ? ” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


30 

" Water-colour sketches. My aunt taught me. It’s 
quite easy.” 

“ Do you sing ? ” 

“ I have a magnificent voice and no ear at all. What 
do you do ? ” 

“ I write and give lectures. Sociology’s my subject. 
I’m secretary to three societies.” 

** How exciting ! What sort of societies ? ” 

“ Feminist. Advanced feminist. Here we are.” 

The cab drew up at its destination. Dom was 
delivered to a housemaid, who was seemingly an old 
friend. 

“ Dom, I'm coming to see you every day, ” said 
Glorinda. “ Good bye, old boy.” 

Dom wagged his tail and looked after her, with the 
old insoluble problem in his eyes, Shall I ever see her 
again ? The two girls remained for a little, standing on 
the pavement outside the house. At last Marcella 
Tucker summoned up all the courage she possessed and 
said, shyly and hurriedly: “ Will you come and have 
lunch with me at my club ? ” 

“ Oh, how jolly ! I’ve never been in a club.” 

The two went away together, Marcella to teach and 
Glorinda to learn—" other things.” 


CHAPTER V 


On a hillside facing south and overlooking the city of 
Florence, lay, in the midst of olive gardens and vine¬ 
yards, the Villa Stellini and its dependent farm buildings. 

It was a morning of brilliant sunshine and the hour 
was so early that the wood-smoke from the house- 
chimneys was still faint and vaporous; not dense 
enough to obscure, hardly strong enough to do more 
than add a soft mysterious depth to the atmosphere. 
The new houses of the city, being of low elevation, lost 
in this haze the rough edges of their modern crudeness. 
The older and loftier buildings, churches, palaces and 
towers, rising above the aromatic mist, displayed in a 
crystalline medium of purest ether the superb time-worn 
outlines of dome and roof and belfry. From horizon 
to horizon stretched a vault of serenest Italian azure; 
that azure that is ineffable in its purity, and yet suggests 
that the chemistry of heaven has composed its elements : 
that azure which, imponderable and intangible, yet 
arches the sky solidly with the infinity of interstellar 
space. 

Beneath lay the Tuscan hills, not majestic, yet 
strangely impressive, strangely human, their aspect 
changing from hour to hour, from season to season, 
kindly, earthly, mutable, Nature's sweet and humble 
protest against the too obviously eternal. And at the 
foot of the hills lay the city, all human, and the Vale of 
Arno, a panorama of entrancing loveliness. 

The Villa Stellini was a long, two-storeyed house 
consisting of a central portion and two wings. The 
wings were thrust out in advance of the central portion, 
and the space between them was roofed over at the 
height of the first storey, thus forming a loggia. The 
front of the loggia, which was in the same line as the 
front of the wings of the house, was an arcade of five 
31 


32 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


open arches. These arches, faithfully copied from older 
arches of the Brunelleschi type, bestowed an air of 
severe distinction on a building that was otherwise 
without any architectural merit, save that of usefulness. 

Before the loggia lay a small curved terrace, bounded 
by a balustrade of stone-work. From each end of this 
small terrace a flight of steps curved downwards to a 
much longer terrace, also balustraded. The curves of 
the flights of steps and the outlines of the rails and 
pilasters of the balustrades were characterized by the 
same austere grace as marked the arches of the loggia. 
The small upper terrace, semi-circular in shape, was 
filled with rose trees, set in immense coarse earthenware 
pots on which one could discover the name of a local 
potter. The lower terrace, which its admirers asserted 
to be the finest promenade in Florence, was filled partly 
with lemon trees and partly with beds of flowering 
plants. 

An elderly Italian gentleman was walking with leisurely 
step from end to end of the lower terrace. He was 
of the type that has come to be reckoned old-fashioned. 
At a glance one knew him, spare, ascetic, precise, cour¬ 
teous. Dressed with scrupulous care, he still, although 
his age exceeded sixty, remained a good deal of a dandy. 
He wore, not without distinction, a monocle. The 
tips of his moustaches were waxed. And a little bunch 
of violets was so seldom absent from his button-hole 
that one would have said that for him the violet was 
never out of season. Every now and then he paused 
to admire a rose or a chrysanthemum, or to survey some 
striking detail in the landscape, a church tower, a 
farmstead, a distant monastery, a belt of cypresses ; 
ever and anon he would return to the same flower, would 
hold up its head and look down into its face, and as he 
did so, his face was the face of a lover. It would not 
have disturbed him at all to know that he was the 
subject of a conversation which was passing between two 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 33 

little housemaids in pink, who were standing in the 
loggia awaiting the arrival of expected guests. 

" The Marchese is up early.” 

“ He was out again last night.” 

” He went out at half-past one and came back at 
half-past six.” 

“ Didn't he go to bed at all ? ” 

" No.” 

" Good. That is one bed the less to make. It is no 
use trying to find out where he goes.” 

“ He will never tell us. I asked him once. He said, 
‘ I am on duty.' I said, * What is the duty ? ' He 
said, * Peace, child, I am too old to be seeking wicked¬ 
ness.' ” 

“ I should like to know all the same.” 

" So should I.” 

“ We shall never know.” 

" Never.” 

That topic was seemingly finished, and for the hun¬ 
dredth time. The Marchese was a blank wall. They 
shrugged their pretty shoulders. But Beppina began 
again. 

“ When he was young he was a doctor.” 

" That is so.” 

” And he had to leave Italy and go abroad and make 
money to pay off the settlements on his estate.” 

“ I know that. And when he had paid off the settle¬ 
ments he came back to Italy. But what does he do 
now ? ” 

“ We shall never know.” 

" Never.” 

Again they shrugged their pretty shoulders. 

Almost immediately they began to chatter again, like 
birds. 

” I hear the carriage,” said Beppina. 

“ This young one who is coming is most beautiful,” 
said Giulietta. 


D 


34 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


But Beppina looked sceptical. 

“We know the English beautifulness. Very dis¬ 
tinguished, surely. But cold ! " 

And she pretended to shiver. 

“ But you have seen her photograph ! " 

“ What does a photograph tell you f Beautifulness is 
an affair of fire and colour and spirit." 

, “ Her aunt has assured me that she is most beautiful. 
She has red hair." 

Beppina laughed scornfully. 

“ We know the English red hair." 

“ And she is tall, very tall." 

“ They are all tall." 

“ As for me, I maintain that she is beautiful." 

“ Of what use to argue ? You have not seen her." 

“ Here comes the carriage." 

A two-horsed victoria, having achieved the ascent of 
the long approach through the avenue of cypresses, 
drew up at the loggia. The Marchese finished his walk 
to the far end of the terrace, turned, and cast a quick 
and discreet glance towards the two ladies who were 
preparing to descend from the carriage. He frowned 
slightly and said to himself, “ A plague on it. It must 
be that my eyesight is failing. There is no woman like 
that anywhere in the world." 

* * * * * * 

The Marchese had been one of those fortunates who 
awake early in life to a proportioned sense of the beauti¬ 
ful. In his youth, physical beauty, the beauty of 
nature, and of man's best handiwork, and of the human 
frame, had possessed him and had held him in an 
ecstasy. In his later life the calls of a strenuous pro¬ 
fession had limited him. But now he had attained the 
safe harbour of old age and of such leisure as a voluntary 
sense of duty permitted him. With a mind that was 
stored with a lifetime's associations, with a sensibility 
that was as yet unimpaired, with a body that no longer 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 35 

intervened to disturb his ideals, he felt himself at the 
finest and happiest period of life. “ They say,” he would 
reflect, ” that youth is happier than age. But how do 
they know ? They have not been old.” 

He came nearer to the carriage, looking downwards, 
in order to avoid the appearance of scrutinizing the 
new arrivals. Arrived at closer range, he cast another 
lightning glance, and what he saw plunged him into a 
sudden Italian ecstasy. 

" By Phidias and Titian, by heaven and earth, by the 
sun and the moon and the stars and the flowers, it is 
true 1 ” he exclaimed. His mind swimming in in¬ 
credulous joy, he turned his back on Glorinda and leaned 
over the balustrade of the terrace, twisting in excitement 
his waxed moustaches. 

Marcella jumped lightly out of the carriage and began 
to busy herself with the removal of the hand baggage. 
Beppina and Giulietta joined in to help her. 

“ She will give trouble, that one,” they reflected, 
judging her from their long experience of pension guests. 
Glorinda seemed to be not greatly interested in the 
luggage. She cast a smiling glance at the two little 
brown-eyed maids and returned their greeting, which 
the strenuous Marcella had overlooked. 

" Now,” said Marcella vigorously, ” let us go to our 
rooms and have our coffee and rolls.” 

" Oh just one moment, Marcella ; this is too lovely.” 

Glorinda looked out over the Val d’Arno. The early 
mists had dispersed, and the valley lay extended before 
them in the superb clearness of the morning atmosphere. 

Marcella stayed her activity. 

“ That’s the Campanile,” she announced decisively, 
pointing out the Lily of Florence. 

Glorinda’s eyes wandered happily over the prospect. 
“ Look at these rolling hills with the little farmsteads 
dotted about them. It’s all so friendly and human.” 

A second carriage drove up to the loggia, and a young 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


36 

man alighted from it. His movements seemed somewhat 
slow and clumsy for one so young. He took off his hat. 

“ Good morning again/' he said, smiling. It was a 
pleasant smile, but perhaps a little constrained and 
formal. He came up to them, approaching in a manner 
that appeared unduly stiff and composed. 

“ Your baggage won't be released until nine o’clock 
at the earliest,” he said. “ I'm sorry I couldn’t bring 
it along.” 

Marcella threw a hostile glance at him, a glance which 
conveyed the accusation that the young man could have 
brought the baggage if he had taken a little more trouble 
about it. She put him down as lazy and slow, and, in a 
quiet way, supercilious. When he had helped them 
with their hand baggage at the station he had seemed 
awkward, and she had wanted to snatch the things out 
of his hands and do the work herself. And here he was 
again with his composed elderly movements. 

Beppina came to call them, and Marcella said brus¬ 
quely, " Come along, Glorinda. Our coffee’s ready.” 

Glorinda paused and cast a glance at the youth. She 
had an impulse to be amused at him. He was so sedate 
and old-mannish. She and Marcella had travelled down 
with him in the same compartment from Paris. In the 
early dawn, Glorinda, awaking from a sound sleep, had 
seen him looking tired and haggard and rather grimy. 
But he had slipped away with his handbag, and had 
returned after a few minutes, clean and well shaven and 
with a fresh collar, and Glorinda had felt horribly 
ashamed of herself, and had run away at once to do her 
hair. At the station he had helped them in an unob¬ 
trusive way, had explained about the Customs, and had 
volunteered to try to get their heavy baggage out 
quickly. 

At this moment, on the loggia, he was paying his 
cabman. He was standing with his back to Glorinda. 
Marcella had gone into the house with Beppina. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


37 


Glorinda addressed his back. " Thank you so much for 
helping us at the station. It was awfully kind of you." 

The Marchese, ascending the curved staircase, came 
in sight of Glorinda as she addressed the young man. 
To the MaTchese the young man seemed straight and 
tall and comely, and the Marchese loved a youth to be 
straight and tall and comely. He had visited many 
lands, and studied many races, and seen many fine 
individual specimens of men in all countries. But a 
fine type, a fine class, was not so easy to discover. There 
was, in his opinion, only one sort of man who had been 
bred in sufficient numbers to form a type or class of 
special excellence, and that was the English governing or 
aristocratic class. There were as good men in other 
places, but there were not enough of them to put their 
stamp on their country, as the English did. This new 
arrival seemed at first sight to be rather typical of the 
breed. 

The Marchese had had to admit that the breed was a 
puzzling one. Its ideals had evaded him for a time. 
Knowledge, beauty, faith, method, these were specific 
ideals of various countries, ancient and modern ; but 
the English aristocratic ideal was none of these, and 
seemed in truth definitely to put such things into the 
background, and to be almost ashamed of them. So the 
English had at first struck him as being conservative, 
unimaginative, unreceptive, even stupid, until at last 
he discovered that what they idealized was correct 
action. To do the right thing, in the right way, at the 
right time, that was their idealism ; the idealism of 
conduct. Their Utopia was a world which consisted 
exclusively of gentlemen. By a process which seemed 
to a foreigner to involve the resolute elimination of the 
ideal, these English somehow arrived at doing things 
which were apt to challenge one’s respect, although not 
always immediately. 

The young man had turned quickly when Glorinda 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


38 

spoke to him. He seemed shy ; perhaps there was a 
certain constraint or stiffness in him ; rather charac¬ 
teristic. Possibly the stiffness was of the body and not 
of the spirit. The Marchese cast the swift diagnostic 
eye of the war-surgeon over him. 

Glorinda, standing closer to the youth, had observed 
that when he turned it seemed as if a sudden shrinking 
passed down his right side. But he recovered himself 
at once, and became again very sedate and composed, 
with his lips slightly compressed. He began to speak, 
but Glorinda paid no attention to his words. Walking 
straight up to him, she said : 

“ I don't believe you are well.” 

“ It’s all right now, thank you.” 

But his voice showed nervous strain, and his face still 
had the expression of one who was controlling himself 
with effort. Glorinda looked at him with an embarrass¬ 
ing directness of scrutiny. She remembered how 
haggard he had looked in the early morning light. 

“ I don’t believe you are fit to carry things about. 
What is it ? Can I help you ? ” 

He laughed uneasily. 

" I’m a bit of a crock,” he confessed. " Nothing that 
matters.” 

Glorinda happened to be thinking of her aunt's 
friend, the old Indian soldier, General Bellamy. 

“ You are a soldier,” she said. 

“ I was.” 

V Is it a wound ? ” 

“ I suppose I must admit it now,” he laughed. 

She looked at him reproachfully, and her eyes began 
to glisten. “ And you allowed us to let you help us with 
our baggage,” she said. “ Give me your suit-case.” 
He protested and she insisted. " You can’t help it, 
you see,” she laughed. " I’m ever so much stronger than 
you. Do please let me carry your suit-case.” 

The Marchese looked up. The voices had grown 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


39 

louder, and there was now a hint of mirth in them. 
There stood the English youth with one hand on his 
suit-case. 

And there also stood Glorinda, with one hand on the 
young man’s suit-case. One pair of laughing eyes 
looked into another pair of laughing eyes. The Marchese, 
ever discreet, turned towards the balustrade of the 
terrace. Seemingly there was in the far distance, where 
the mountains of Carrara shimmered on the horizon, 
something that called for his concentrated attention. 

“ The lady,” he reflected, “ is doubtless Miss Swift, 
the niece of Miss Lancaster. The gentleman will, I 
suppose, be Captain Lestrange. I like him. He is 
almost good enough for Miss Swift.” 

Beppina and Giulietta returned to fetch the young 
man’s baggage. 

” She is bellissima ,” said Giulietta later. " I told 
you so.” 

Beppina kept silent. 

“ You and your English red hair ! ” said Giulietta 
scornfully pursuing her advantage. 

Beppina executed a diversion. 

" He also is bellissimo,” she declared. 

” But yes. Surely.” 

“ He has blue eyes, of a brightness.” 

" He is the lucky one.” 

” No, but she.” 

" Ah ! ” 

Still chattering they disappeared into the kitchen. 


CHAPTER VI 

It was night, and the moon was riding serenely in a 
cloudless heaven. 

The old Marchese, his elbows resting on the balustrade 
of the lower terrace, felt sleepy, having passed the 
previous night on watch and in discomfort. In troublous 
times such as these, when the old spirit of faction 
raged anew through street and suburb of Florence, 
Milan, Turin, the rules of his Florentine order enjoined 
unceasing wakefulness. He had not come near to his 
seventieth year, to undertake an obligation and fail to 
carry it out punctiliously. Unceasing wakefulness 
meant not sleeping, if it meant anything at all; and he 
would not sleep, whatever others might do. But it 
was tiring for an old man. To turn night into day was 
one of the privileges of youth. He must now go to bed. 
He threw a farewell glance at the scene that lay before 
him. 

The city, lying in the valley below, was bathed in a 
diffused golden light from the electric street lamps and 
the shop windows. Seen from the hill-side, this artificial 
glow seemed strangely flattened out, like a carpet. 
Wherever a tall building shot up above the common 
level of construction, the moonlight seized on it, and 
the artificial glow beneath became incongruous and 
unimportant. 

The hum of traffic was dying down as the hour grew 
later. Every now and then there rang out the shrill 
distant whoop of wheel upon rail, as an electric car 
swung round a sharp corner. 

How many weary men and women and children in 
that city were now going to rest, he reflected. Three 
hundred thousand of them in this one human herd ! 
And, by averages, there would be so many hundreds 
of sick beds, so many scores of people dying ; every case 
40 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 41 

a personal, individual tragedy. Ah, but that was a 
dangerous line of thought ! There was one love for the 
mass, and another love for the individual, and one must 
keep them separate, or one would go mad. How could 
he, a surgeon, maintain his sanity if he felt the pangs of 
every sufferer ? No one had ever done that, save Christ, 
and he had died of it. 

These cruel averages ! How remorselessly they 
worked, producing the miserable human residuum, 
the dust heap. Every woman who bore a child into the 
world contributed infallibly, sooner or later, something 
to the horrifying residuum of wretchedness and agony. 
Some day, would there be a society, a league, of men and 
women, sworn to produce no offspring ? Would the most 
intelligent part of the race agree to sterilize itself ? 
No. Human vanity would prevent that. What was 
the cure then ? 

He looked abroad over the city, a swarming hive. 
Above the house-roofs, in a cold natural light, towered 
the Campanile, the Duomo, and the age-old Palaces. 
These were things that had endured. The thronged 
hives of humanity had passed away; new hives had 
taken their place, and had in turn passed away. Only 
the strong and the beautiful remained. For century 
after century, that Campanile would continue to watch 
the ebb and flow of human dwellings. Was not the 
same thing happening amongst men ? The fretful 
innumerable horde of those who spent their lives in 
seeking a livelihood threw out by some strange magic, 
•every now and then, a great soul, an abiding influence, 
like these lovely buildings. Beauty was a rare growth, 
but it endured; ugliness propagated itself feverishly, 
but in the long run it perished away. In that lay 
salvation. 

Yes, but even assuming that the best would happen ? 
The Campanile itself would pass away, and the great 
souls would be overtaken by oblivion. The Tuscan 


42 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

Hills would remain, brooding, silent, awaiting their 
turn to pass into the limbo of a worn-out world. 

The Marchese collected himself and laughed, and 
remembered that he had not been in bed the night 
before. " If I were my own physician," he said to 
himself, " I would inform myself frankly that I was too 
old for night work. Night work, I would say, reduces 
your vitality and makes you tired and peevish, and you 
have dismal thoughts. Go to bed, my friend, go to bed. 
Optimism is a question of vitality. There is nothing in 
your lugubrious philosophy which eight hours of sleep 
will not cure." 

He turned and looked along the terrace. The rows of 
malmaisons and chrysanthemums seemed happy and 
peaceful, as if exchanging silent messages with their 
sister in the sky. At the farther end of the terrace were 
the two newly arrived ladies, the one, tall and dressed in 
white, the other, short and dressed in some dark colour. 
The tall white one, she who was like a statute by Phidias, 
was Glorinda. Already he thought of her as Glorinda ; 
a second name seemed as irrelevant to her as it would 
be to Zenobia or Semiramis. As regards the little dark 
Miss, he would rather not know her name at all, for fear 
he might think of her. He had already conceived an 
antipathy to her. 

The Marchese had seen Glorinda in the bright sunshine 
of early morning, and by that same bright light he had 
looked on the Campanile. Undoubtedly it was brilliant 
sunlight that best revealed the perfections of the Cam¬ 
panile. But as for Glorinda, it was a problem. Bright 
sunlight or this ethereal lunar radiance ? Which was the 
better medium ? In either case it was an affair to fill 
an artist with rapture. That sheer beauty should come 
to him thus fortuitously for his enthralled adoration was 
such a stroke of happy chance as he had not anticipated 
for his declining years. 

He turned to the Valley of the Arno, and saw the white 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 43 

farmsteads on the hillsides, reflecting the moonlight. 
His eyes roved from end to end of his beloved Florence. 
Then he snatched a swift reverent glance at Glorinda. 

It was one of these evenings which, to his thinking, 
no man in the w’orld was, or ever had been, worthy to 
look upon, with the exception perhaps of one or two 
Italians of the Renaissance, and here and there a poet 
in other lands. The world of men and women was, to 
be sure, an astoundingly wTetched business. People 
were for the most part dismally poor and uncomfortable. 
Few’ indeed had their lines cast in pleasant places. But 
howrever unhappy and degraded men might be, surely 
one night such as this justified the w*ork of Creation. 
In course of time man w r ould learn to find his soul’s 
salvation in beauty, and then the purpose of God would 
be accomplished. 

He looked down from the terrace on to the garden of 
vines and olives. Some people thought the olive an 
austere and sombre thing. As for him, he saw’ in the 
olive, with its silver and its restful green, a steadfast 
and lovely image of goodness and peace. 

In his beloved Florence of the Renaissance there 
might have been a gallant stripling down below there 
among the vines and olives, singing a love song and with 
a musical instrument in his hands and, to be sure, a 
good sw’ord at his side. Perhaps the music would cease 
abruptly. There would be angry shouts, and the clash 
of steel, and presently a comely youth w'ould be borne 
away by his friends between the ranks of the vines. 
There was nothing of that nowadays. The young man 
w’ho had arrived that morning w*as the best that the 
twentieth century could produce in the shape of a Romeo; 
a young man w’ho dressed at night in a black dress suit 
and a white shirt; very correct and quiet and w’ell 
behaved, and rather composed and elderly in his move¬ 
ments, and not seemingly in the least romantic. But 
after all, suppose that one gave this tall and not 


44 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

unattractive youth a plumed cap and a crimson doublet 
and hose, and slashed sleeves and a good sword; and 
suppose Glorinda to be clad in a robe o* cloth of gold with 
a golden belt and a great emerald clasp, would the 
Renaissance then seem so very far away ? 

Such beauty as Glorinda’s had an element of fateful¬ 
ness in it. Nearly all great beauty had ended in tragedy. 
But nowadays personality was swamped, and things 
did not happen so violently as they used to. Still, 
Glorinda was authentic ; she was a beauty in the great 
style, although young, ignorant, undeveloped, as heed¬ 
less as a filly in a pasture. She had shown that by the 
way she had come into the dining-room at luncheon time. 

“ Such a lovely bath," she had cried out to her aunt, 
and everyone in the room had laughed. Even the 
reserved young stranger, the other new arrival, who was 
sitting in the comer, had looked up, and his blue eyes 
had twinkled. Then Glorinda had entered enthu¬ 
siastically upon a description of a thousand wonderful 
things that she had seen on the way up to the Villa. 
They had been stopped at the railway control barrier 
by such a dear old man in uniform, who had looked at 
them and smiled and saluted, and had then waved his 
hand to the driver to go on. They had passed along the 
narrowest streets, and had seen the most thrilling and 
fascinating names; the Street of the Beautiful Ladies, 
the Street of the Sword, the Street of Inferno ! Looking 
along a side street, they had snatched a glimpse of the 
great marble Campanile, the Lily of Florence, bathed in 
the morning sunshine, soaring upwards, reaching out 
to touch the blue Italian sky. But the most thrilling 
thing of all was this. At a street comer they had been 
obliged to stop. They had looked out, and had seen a 
great grey hospital ambulance, and on the driving seat 
were two men, cowled and robed in black from head to 
foot. It was the Misericordia, the thing in Florence 
which it had stirred Glorinda most to read of. She told 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


45 

her aunt the well-known story of the rude porters who 
had lived far back in the early Middle Ages, and had 
agreed to check their custom of profane swearing by 
imposing fines on each other, and the fines were collected 
and out of the money and the love of their fellow men, 
as the centuries passed, slowly grew a mysterious 
Fraternity. The names of the brothers were disclosed 
to nobody ; but by day or night, whenever a call came, 
the hooded brothers would set out to the help of the 
injured and wounded. So Glorinda had run on, and 
the Marchese had felt his heart swell at her innocent 
raptures. 

Presently Miss Tucker had come in. She had not 
swept into the room like Glorinda ; her movements were 
tense and rapid. The Marchese diagnosed her. Yes, 
she too was a type, familiar to history and to medicine 
in all ages, but never so common as nowadays. She 
was over-engined, over-nerved. Like a horse with 
blinkers, she would move in a right line to the point 
at which she was aiming ; she would see that point, and 
that point only, and she would have no sense of pro¬ 
portion in other matters. Sometimes such a state of 
mind occurred epidemically, and was accompanied by 
a mental fury which was highly contagious, as any 
historian could tell you. Would Miss Tucker infect 
Glorinda ? Had she already done so ? 

The Marchese had the Italian aptitude for casting 
events into a dramatic form. Here was your heroine, 
Glorinda, and here was your hero, Captain Lestrange. 
A villain was obviously wanted. A Renaissance group 
always had its villain, its prisoner, its assassin, its woman 
who loved mischief for mischief’s sake. She was the 
medieval Devil, cast in a new mould, but essentially of 
the same material as before. Miss Tucker filled a 
vacant role in the drama. She would have to be foiled, 
otherwise there would be a tragedy. A tragedy ? With 
a villain who was a Miss and a Tucker ? Impossible. 


46 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

Still, the tragedies of everyday life did not arise out of 
magnificent crimes. They mostly had their source in 
some irrevelant act of rashness or folly, some trifle 
which no one had thought would matter. So had the 
Marchese reflected at breakfast time, and the same 
thoughts recurred to him now on the terrace by moon¬ 
light. 

He suddenly felt tired and listless. 

“ If I had not lost a night’s sleep,” he reflected, " it 
would never occur to me to regard Glorinda’s probably 
quite harmless companion as a Mephistopheles. I 
must go to my room, open the jalousies, and fall asleep 
in the moonlight.” 

He turned towards the house. The two girls, also 
making reluctantly for their rooms, were ascending the 
staircase to the upper terrace. He overtook them and 
was impressed anew by the contrast between them. “ It 
is the dark principle and the light,” he reflected. He 
addressed Glorinda. ” One must sleep, for all this 
beauty.” 

“ Isn't it wicked ? ” she exclaimed. “ Why are there 
only twenty four hours in the day ? ” 

She swept her arm round to indicate the panorama. 

“ Look, oh look. One can't speak, Do you know it 
well ? ” 

“ I have seen it a thousand times.” 

" You are the luckiest man in the world.” 

" I think so too,” he said. She did not know that he 
was speaking of her, but Marcella caught the implication 
and threw a jealous glance at him. 

" These heavenly buildings,” Glorinda went on. 
" How is it that they all happened at one time and in 
one place ? ” 

The Marchese made one of his expressive Italian 
gestures. 

“ You have a dark room full of beautiful things. 
There is a crack in the shutter. A ray of sunlight comes 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 47 

in and illuminates one little space, and you call it a 
Renaissance." Marcella had her own point of view and 
did not fail to express it. 

“ Your ray of sunlight was not allowed to touch the 
women." The Marchese smiled at her vehemence, and 
she continued resentfully : 

“ A woman never had a chance of doing anything in 
your Renaissance. It is all Giotto and Michael Angelo." 

“ Ah," he laughed, "You think we should have known 
more if Giotto had been a shepherd girl instead of a 
shepherd boy ? " 

" A Shepherd girl would never have had a chance." 

The Marchese remained silent. Miss Tucker was 
seemingly ready to throw down the gauntlet of feminism 
at any hour of the day or night. He himself was too 
tired to enter upon even a friendly contest, and he 
doubted whether friendliness would, in any circum¬ 
stances, enter into Miss Tucker’s scheme of discussion. 
In any case, so far as Miss Tucker's idea was that woman- 
power was to a great extent being wasted in the world, 
he would have agreed with her. But who except an 
obsessed person, a wearer of blinkers, would wish to 
start a sociological debate on such a night ? He looked 
at Glorinda. She at any rate was in tune with her 
surroundings. So he addressed her. 

" You see that Campanile of Giotto's ? The inner 
part, the construction, the rightness, the strength, are 
masculine. The marble casing that shimmers in the 
moonlight, that is feminine. Combined, thev are one 
superb idea.” 

" Stuff and nonsense," Marcella exclaimed. " You 
might as well say that Miss Swift was masculine inside 
and feminine outside." 

" Well, Marcella, perhaps I am. What do you know 
about the inside of me ? Come along, my dear. To bed, 
to bed. I hate these nights in the train. I am a weary 
woman and no man." 


CHAPTER VII 

The kinsfolk with whom Miss Lancaster had left her 
niece in London were kind and hospitable people, who 
conducted their life on a pleasant basis of non-inter¬ 
ference, or, as it is now called, self-determination. 
From their point of view, the idea of a chaperone implied 
a despicable suggestion of certain vague improprieties 
against which the young were wrongly supposed to 
require to be defended. And Miss Lancaster, although 
in her secluded village she had been surprised by rumours 
of the decay of the venerable institution of chaperonage, 
had never realized the extent to which it had fallen out 
of repute. Regretfully imagining it moribund, she was 
not aware that in most places it was completely defunct. 

Marcella then, to her joy and astonishment, had 
found that no obstacles were put in the way of her 
rapidly formed determination to monopolise Glorinda. 

Marcella, who came of a hereditary shop-keeping 
breed, happened to be distinguished from the rest ofher 
family by the possession of brains. Other members of 
the Tucker family found places, according to their 
capacity, in the curious hierarchy of retail commerce, 
whereas Marcella, solitarily intellectual, gained prizes 
at the local High School. And this was no small feat 
among surroundings so restless and distracting ; with 
brothers who had Cockney suburban ways, flippant, 
humorous and, to be sure, kindly enough, but devas- 
tatingly upsetting to the lonely scholar ; sisters whose 
chief study was to carry out the motifs of expensive 
fashions with the help of the most inexpensive possible 
materials from the bargain counter. It was, one would 
say, a cheaply constructed household. To stick to one’s 
books and win scholarships was a grim business. And 
Marcella managed to go through with it, but at a loss ; 
for she had in her, for ever after, something of the lone 
wolf. 


48 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


49 

When she left school, a woman’s college opened out its 
arms to her, and the career of schoolmistress seemed 
assured. An overvaluation of books and an excessive 
addiction to system might have kept her safe in the 
routine of the pedagogue for the rest of her life, had 
not the Great War broken out. At that terrifying crisis, 
the gregarious wolves of the world herded themselves 
together into two opposing packs ; and the lone wolves 
joined such minor independent packs as suited their 
personal idiosyncrasies. Marcella’s lone-wolf pack was 
that of the militant pacificists. During the war it fell 
to Marcella's lot to be roughly handled once or twice by 
the police. Her arrests had given her a fierce joy; 
on the other hand, the contemptuous indifference of the 
magistrates who had discharged her had driven her in 
upon herself, there to cultivate a yet bitterer ferocity. 

With her experience of the arms of constables and the 
barred windows of police cells, Marcella felt herself too 
mature to resume her academic studies. Superheated 
with ideas, untrained by college or by normal experi¬ 
ence, she was confirmed for life in a febrile state of semi¬ 
education. The only cure for the lone wolf is to be 
given a mate, and a mate was the thing that Marcella 
was unconsciously seeking. A man-mate ? No, as¬ 
suredly, not a man-mate. Marcella despised men, and 
it must be admitted that she was not without good 
reason for her contempt. She had thrown herself upon 
the world at a period which had brought it to shame, 
as no period had ever shamed it before. Male thinkers 
had conceived masculine philosophies, male professors 
had preached them ; docile peoples had been first 
hypnotized and then militarized, and the consummation 
of all this masculinity had been a world-shambles. 
There had been much heroism displayed in the great 
slaughter-house, pitiful blind heroism of men going over 
the top for they knew not what, men fighting on and 
on until they were dazed with the accursed affair, and 


5 o THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

cried out to have it stopped at any cost. And when 
it was stopped, what was the result of it all ? Merely the 
further and yet further display of this same strong 
masculinity. Strength ! Was this strength ? The in¬ 
sensate fury of a madman fighting the walls of his cell, 
while all the time the door of salvation lay open for 
him ? 

And women, nearly all women, had been brought into 
the foul business ; they had indeed thrown themselves 
into it, heart and soul. The goodness of these women, 
and the imbecility of them I It had never occurred to 
them to reflect that woman had great qualities in which 
she was superior to man. She had love, patience, 
loyalty, the inherent mother-qualities, supreme endow¬ 
ments which, had proper weight been given to them, 
would have rendered the world-tragedy impossible, 
unthinkable. And the love and loyalty and endurance 
had only served to strengthen man in his idiot fury. 

So, after all, who were the greater fools, the men or the 
women ? 

However, with woman suffrage gained, and the war 
at an end, there did not seem to be much to hold the 
lone wolves together, unless it was a common love of 
anarchy ; and anarchy is not a binding force. So the 
lone wolves scattered, and Marcella was left to herself, 
brooding sulphurously. 

When Marcella acquired her hatred of man, she merely 
took her place in the great army of pessimists who had 
witnessed the shattering of their ideals. But whereas 
the other pessimists saw no spiritual force that would 
reconstruct their ideals for them, Marcella did discern 
a new spiritual force, and it was woman. 

But oh, but oh, she wailed inwardly, where is our 
leader, and what is a movement without a leader ? 
Where is the woman who will be to us our masterful 
Caesar, our volcanic Napoleon, our infinitely patient 
Abraham Lincoln ? Of able and intelligent women, 


TOE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 51 

equal in capacity to the ordinary member of Parliament, 
there were hundreds, thousands. But humanity was 
awaiting eagerly a new revelation, and was ready to 
resume its worship of a goddess ; and there was no 
goddess for humanity to worship. And so Marcella 
brooded, in her wilderness of women. 

And then she saw Glorinda, and for the first time in 
her life she fell a willing victim to a passion of adoration 
for personal beauty. Hitherto she had adored no women 
save those who lived in the pages of history and romance. 
But now she gazed on a new planet. Thirsting and 
hungering for a woman to worship, she saw in Glorinda 
the incarnation of all heroines, and around her she 
forthwith draped all the fabric of her fancies. And she 
had made the very most of their fortnight in London. 
She had been the first to discover Glorinda, and she had 
found her an enthusiastic pupil, entirely ignorant and 
incredibly inexperienced. The many new ideas which 
she had infused into Glorinda's receptive mind had been 
absorbed joyously and without reservation. How 
indeed could one make reservations when one knew 
nothing of the other side of the case ? Marcella had had 
many visions, and at the centre of them all had been 
Woman. But at the centre of them all now was one 
woman, Glorinda. Glorinda was, her teacher believed, 
the most beautiful human being in the world ; she had 
the purest and brightest and most receptive of minds ; 
her absolute truthfulness was a revelation to Marcella, 
who, herself, held it a duty at all times to speak as much 
of the truth as she dared, and, very often, more of it 
than was consistent either with expediency or politeness. 

Here, however, in Florence, her monopoly of Glorinda 
came suddenly to an end. Miss Lancaster was com¬ 
pletely unsuspicious of any change in her niece’s attitude. 
To her, Glorinda was still a girl who had been brought 
up very quietly in the country, and had lived in the 
kindest but narrowest traditions of lady-like seclusion. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


52 

The aunt had resumed her charge of Glorinda and had, 
as if it were the most natural thing in the world, taken 
her away one afternoon to visit a person whom she had 
described as " such a dear old lady." “ Such a dear 
old lady," Marcella repeated inwardly, fuming, and she 
went for a walk on the terrace where she paced up and 
down furiously. She would not surrender her Glorinda 
to anyone. She would not be jockeyed out of her place. 
Glorinda was the centre of Marcella’s great new universe ; 
Glorinda was, or would be, the Queen of the New Epoch. 
For centuries Woman had been waiting for a saviour, 
a prophet, a queen. Every now and again in history 
a woman of commanding greatness had seemed to rule 
the fates of men and had proved the inherent capacity 
of woman for dominion. But the overwhelming weight 
of tradition, the irresistible potency of brute force 
wielded by the hands of men, had prevented these great 
women from being succeeded by other women of their 
own stamp. Even amongst these great women there 
were those who had weakly yielded to the claims of 
motherhood, and had abandoned the cause of their own 
sex. Would woman never cease to be man’s fool ? 
Marcella cast a glance downwards at Florence, which 
rested there in sunshine. Ah ! what an ideal place for 
the blossoming of the flower of the world ! There lay 
the city of Dante, of Michael Angelo, of Savonarola. 
Surely these Titans had lived and worked and created 
solely for the perfecting of the human spirit; they had 
striven nobly, but blindly, with their superabundant 
crude genius, never suspecting that humanity was on its 
way through struggle and force and rudimentary male 
effort to a world of spiritual values, in which woman 
would take her rightful place. 

Marcella, at the end of the terrace, encountered 
General Bellamy. She stopped suddenly and looked at 
him. Her scrutiny of him, though contemptuous, was 
curiously impersonal. He seemed to her to be such a 


I 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 53 

delightful type, such a convincingly ludicrous incarnation 
of male absurdity. She had never yet spoken to him, 
but now and then she had heard his rough, authoritative 
voice on those occasions when he had insisted on carrying 
chairs or a cushion or a cake basket, performing to be 
sure the duties of a carpet knight, but doing so with all 
the fierce energy of a fighting man. He carried tea 
cups as if he were holding a couched spear, and kept his 
eye on a lady as he would have kept it on a polo ball. 

“ Good morning, Miss Tucker," he shouted cheerily. 

“ Good morning, General," she replied, narrowing her 
eyes at him. 

" Miss Swift was telling me about your meeting her at 
Victoria." 

“ Yes." 

“ That was my dog." 

“ So Miss Swift told me." 

“ He’s a beauty, isn't he ? " 

“ Yes, he’s a beautiful dog." 

But she reflected inwardly that the dog was very like 
his master in some respects, and that the things that were 
beautiful in the dog were not quite so beautiful in General 
Bellamy. 

“ I love dogs. When a man's all by himself out in 
India he must have a dog or two, especially if his wife is 
away in England." 

“ A dog, to be sure, must be an excellent substitute 
for a woman." 

The General laughed heartily. 

“ O come now, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. 
A woman has points, but you can always depend on a 
dog, you know. He'll do what he’s told." 

Again he guffawed heartily, having made, as he 
thought, a joke. But Marcella raged within herself. 
" The fatuous old blockhead," was what she thought. 

“ There’s a good time coming," she said. 

" Indeed ? How do you make that out ? ” 


54 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


“ A time when men will be like dogs, and will do what 
they’re told.” 

The General called a sudden halt to his geniality. 
He eyed Marcella. 

“ Who will be giving the orders ? ” he asked. 

“ The women, of course.” 

" Oh, that’s interesting. How do you explain that ? ” 

“ Brains are bound to overcome brute force in the 
long run.” 

General Bellamy looked at her as he would have 
examined a new species in the Zoo. He had read and 
heard of women like this, but out in India one did not 
have a chance of meeting them. Had she a hatchet 
anywhere about her ? he asked himself, smiling grimly. 

“ I never took much stock in brainy people,” he said. 
“ In some ways you can’t trust them as well as you can 
the stupid ones.” 

" That is precisely what I should have expected you 
to think.” 

He gazed at her with a comical expression of alarm. 
Then he resumed doggedly: 

” I’ve been oftener let down by what are called 
intelligent people than I have by the stupid ones.” 

" That may be so. But you’re in the army, you see.” 

A reflection on the army hurt the General. It was 
right enough for army men to criticise one another; 
they were always doing it amongst themselves ; but for 
outsiders and women to do it was another matter. He 
froze. He would not discuss the army with one of these 
wild women. Marcella perceived with glee that she had 
annoyed him. 

“ It stands to reason,” she pursued blandly, " that 
women are more intelligent than men.” 

" How so ? ” 

“ Well, look at the process of evolution.” 

The General became interested. He loved animals. 
Zoology, evolution, adaptation to surroundings was the 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 55 

only branch of science that had ever captivated him ; 
the three-toed horse, the ornithorhynchus, the ape. 

“ Yes, go on.” 

“ There was a time,” said Marcella, ” when mankind 
was in the making. He was ceasing to be a monkey, and 
was becoming a man.” 

“ Quite so. The arboreal ape. A fine fellow. I 
know about him. Go on.” 

“ The male monkey had become the fighter, for 
reasons not unconnected with the reproduction of the 
species.” 

“ Quite so, quite so,” the General concurred hastily. 
Rather an advanced young female this ! How far 
exactly could one venture to go with her ? The repro¬ 
duction of the species ! I can see, he thought, I am 
growing old-fashioned. 

“ The male monkey remains the fighter still.” 

“ I daresay. That seems reasonable enough.” 

" The female differentiated. She stayed in a cave and 
had babies. The male was up in the tree tops, develop¬ 
ing his muscles and when necessary using his claws and 
teeth. He still does so.” 

" To be sure, to be sure. Instead of throwing a 
cocoanut he fires a rifle. Go on. I quite agree with 
you.” 

" The female, as I explained, stayed at home. She 
had a family to provide for. She learned to use foresight 
and intelligence, so she became observant. She planted 
seeds outside the cave. She learned the uses of fire. 
She invented cooking. She kept things tidy. She 
began to realize what was meant by order, which is the 
basis of all civilisation. She invented clothes. Clothes 
have always been a nuisance to a man. That is because 
clothes were inconvenient in the tree-tops.” 

" There’s something in that,” acquiesced the General. 
" Any natural man always wants to shed his coat in an 
emergency. Go on,” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


56 

" Woman invented civilisation. She has the only sort 
of brain power that is of any permanent value. She of 
course invented speech.'* 

" I can quite believe that." The General laughed in 
his offensive jocular way. Marcella was greatly annoyed. 
The General did not seem to be in the least degree 
impressed by her disquisition. Presently, she vowed, 
she would stir him up. She went on. 

" How long do you think that that stage of develop¬ 
ment would last ? " 

“ Well, perhaps fifty thousand years. Perhaps 
longer." 

“ During those fifty thousand years, woman became 
civilized. The differentiation of sex was settled then 
for all time. Woman became wise, civilized, decent. 
Man remained the male monkey, impulsive,—" 

She looked hard at the General and ticked off his 
points—" Savage, hairy, noisy, rude." 

The General looked up sharply. 

" Talking about me ? " he asked. 

"lam generalising." 

Generalising ! What did she mean with her " general¬ 
ising." He was a General, to be sure. She was obviously 
getting at him with her " generalising." 

" I see you are one of those people who believe in 
hitting straight from the shoulder." 

" I love the truth better than anything else in the 
world." 

"You like fighting with the gloves off ? " he asked, 
regarding her keenly with his small grey eyes that 
looked out under absurdly bushy grey eyebrows. How 
he resembles an old boar, or dog-baboon, she reflected. 

" Of course I do," she said. " Men will never stand 
up to a woman who wants the plain truth. They're such 
miserable cowards." 

" H'm," he said. " There's such a thing as being a 
gentleman." 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 57 

“ Oh, damn your gentlemen. Give me the truth." 

" So be it," he said. “ Personally I don’t do it with 
ladies, but I'll make an exception in your favour. Now 
listen." 

" I'm listening." 

“ You won't run away ? " 

" Why on earth should I run away ? " 

" All right then. I’ll let you have my point of view. 
The male monkey went as you say to the tree tops. He 
cultivated long distance vision. So much for the eyes. 
His life depended on the acuteness of his hearing. So 
much for the ears. He made all the experiments with 
new sorts of nuts and berries. So much for the taste. 
His brain developed accordingly. He did all the 
aggressive fighting. He had to cultivate shrewdness, 
tactics, strategy. If he wasn't strong and clever he was 
killed. He learned the habits of other animals so as 
to get the better of them. He assumed the upright 
position for purposes of observation and fighting. In 
brief, he became a man. Is that so ? " 

" More or less." 

" He broke a branch off a tree, looked at it, and found 
a use for it. All the arts derive from that. While 
the woman was in the cave, the man in his tree top had 
learnt to admire a sunset. The result was that every¬ 
thing that was ever worth doing in the world has been 
done by man. Is that true ? " 

" No, it is not." 

" Never mind. Let us consider the female monkey. 
She stayed in the cave, as you pointed out. She lost 
the hair on her body, and of course had to use skins to 
keep herself warm. That's what you call inventing 
clothes. Her skin became etiolated. That's the white 
skin that you women are so proud of ! She squatted all 
day, nursing the baby or tending the fire. She ran about 
on all fours for fear of bumping her head against the roof 
of the cave. The consequence was that she remained a 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


58 

quadruped. Did you ever notice the difference between 
a man’s hips and a woman’s hips, between a man’s legs 
and a women’s legs ? ” 

" Is there any difference ? ” Marcella asked, in a cold 
fury. 

" You know there is. A woman’s legs are the legs of 
a quadruped. Watch her walking ! Her knees bend 
inwards like a cow’s hindquarters. She walks with a 
tilt forward as if she were always wanting to drop her 
forepaws on the ground to steady herself. Why does 
she wear high heels ? Because they render her more 
attractive by intensifying the femininity of her gait. 
Watch her sitting down. You can see that she wants 
to sit on the floor, and it is only a chair that stops her.” 

Marcella was too angry to speak. But she had said 
she would not run away. She held her ground bravely. 

At last she said : 

" Have you finished ? ” 

The General, seeing her disconcerted, made a kindly 
effort to ease the situation with a little jocularity. 

" Look at her terror of mice,” he said, laughing. 
" You can’t live in a cave for fifty thousand years with¬ 
out becoming afraid of mice.” 

He laughed heartily. 

" And black beetles,” he added. 

"You are simply disgusting,” said Marcella, and she 
walked away. 


CHAPTER VIII 

Glorinda was exploring the grounds of the Villa 
Stellini, and her mind was thrilled by the same delightful 
rapture as she had felt in her childhood when she pene¬ 
trated the fairy-haunted depths of the woods which lay 
about her village. But here on the hillside overlooking 
Florence the interest that arose from her explorations 
was entirely human. Almost every step revealed some 
trace of Tuscan builder, Roman warrior, mediaeval monk 
or freebooter, Renaissance artist. As she wandered 
along the pathway that led through the farmyard 
attached to the villa, she was bewildered by a series of 
joyous impressions ; a roughly laid wall as old as the 
days of Tarquin, a marble bench dating from the time of 
Augustus, a coat of arms of a crusader. But she had 
come nearly to the end of the pathway, and was within 
a few yards of the great iron gate of the farm, before she 
saw a thing which more than any other object filled her 
with ecstasy. It was a Roman bath, about six yards in 
length by four in width, which had been cut out of the 
rock of the hillside. The marble lining was still in a 
good state of preservation, or had, more probably, been 
repaired at some later date. At the upper end of the 
bath was a small flight of marble steps, and at one side 
was a lion's head in bronze, from which spouted a jet of 
crystal clear water, straight from the mountain spring. 
Glorinda seated herself on a marble bench at the head of 
the little flight of steps, and looking down over the city 
that lay beneath, surrendered herself to her rapture. 
After a few minutes her attention was diverted by the 
sound of footsteps. Her first feeling was one of annoy¬ 
ance at being disturbed. But immediately her ear 
detected something unusual in the rhythm of the foot¬ 
steps. The person who was approaching her was 
apparently lame. She looked along the pathway by 
59 


6o 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


which she had come, and saw the young man who had 
been her fellow traveller from Paris. 

As she turned her head towards him, he caught sight 
of her. His figure suddenly straightened, and the 
apparent lameness vanished from his gait. His move¬ 
ments became slow and accurate and measured, and the 
expression of his countenance seemed simultaneously to 
acquire a sort of sedateness and composure. 

Glorinda leaped to her feet and went to meet him. 
" Come and sit down here,” she cried, pointing to the 
marble bench. ” Ought you to be walking at all ? ” 
He obeyed her orders and the two sat down together. 

“ I know it is worse than you pretend,” she said. 

“ I think it is going to be all right presently.” 

" How long have you had it ? ” 

" Oh, it's years now. It’s been giving trouble 
recently.” 

" And we allowed you to carry our baggage.” 

She considered his case for a little and went on. 

“ You had to sit up all night. Was that good for 
you ? ” 

“ It was rather tiring, perhaps.” 

” Why didn’t you travel in a sleeper ? I should love to 
travel in a sleeper. It must be such fun.” 

“ Travelling by night is always disagreeable.” 

She came back to the point. He soon discovered that 
this was one of her little ways ; she always came back 
to the point. 

” Why didn't you take a sleeper ? ” 

" Well, if it comes to that, why didn't you ? ” 

" Why should I ? It would be wicked of me to spend 
my money on sleepers when there are so many other 
things I could do with it. That's one thing I learnt in 
London. Marcella took me round and showed me some 
slums. I am never never going to spend any more 
money than I can help on myself.” 

She reflected for a little and then suddenly broke out: 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 61 

“ Oh, what a wretch I am ! What a miserable hum¬ 
bug ! I had quite forgotten. The real reason why I 
travelled second class was that I had spent all my money 
on new frocks. How could I tell such a fib ? ” 

He laughed his odd, restrained little laugh. 

“ Splendid ! " he said, “ I hope they were jolly frocks/' 
“ They are just perfect. You will be seeing them all. 
But—why didn't you take a sleeper ? " 

After a pause. 

" I thought I could do without it,” he said. 

She scrutinised him very frankly and directly. 

" You don’t look poor. But I believe you are poor. 
Are you poor ? ” 

" I can worry along,” he replied. 

Glorinda seemed plunged in deep thought for a time. 
Then she addressed the young man very gravely. 

“You know, I learnt so many things from Marcella 
during our fortnight in London. One thing was about 
communism. Communism is just like early Chris¬ 
tianity. You share your goods with everybody. It is 
such a glorious idea. Marcella is a communist, of 
course. She has such wonderful ideas. Had you heard 
about communism before I told you ? ” 

" A little.” 

" You believe in it, don't you ? " 

He hesitated before replying. 

" I have heard that communists have rather violent 
ideas about cutting up other people’s property. How¬ 
ever, as I haven’t any property myself, that won't affect 
me.” 

" I was sure of it,” she cried. " You haven’t anything. 
Why wouldn’t you tell me when I asked you ? ” 
Disconcerted, he flushed a little. 

" Oh well, one doesn’t, you know.” 

"You were in a good regiment,” she said, " General 
Bellamy told me so. The Rifle Brigade. That’s good, 
isn’t it ? ” 


62 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


“ Very good.” 

” And you had to have money for that ? ” 

" The money vanished during the war.” 

" And now you're out of the army ? ” 

" Yes.” 

” And you don’t get any pay ? ” 

“ I don’t think I ought to answer these questions.” 

" You needn’t. I know all about it now.” 

She reflected a moment before she went on. 

” Aunt Susan and I made out our budget very care¬ 
fully before we started. I have two hundred a year. 
I can give you half of it.” 

He looked at her ; looked away again. She seemed 
to be expecting a thank you, or some similar, common¬ 
place expression, suitable to an unimportant act of 
kindliness. But he could say nothing. He had to 
refuse, but he would do anything in the world rather 
than hurt her feelings. 

“It’s awfully good of you,” at last he stammered. 

” What nonsense,” she cried. " But that means 
that you'll take it, doesn’t it ? ” 

He fenced for time. 

” I don’t absolutely require it. At any rate, not 
immediately.” 

” You had much better have it immediately. It's 
horrid to cut oneself down to the last penny. I dis¬ 
covered that in London, and I'm never going to do it 
again.” 

He looked at her gravely, searching for some form of 
evasion. 

” May I mention it again later on ? ” he asked. 

" Very well. Later on then. You will let me know. 
And I won’t touch it in case you should want it.” 

His reluctance was still obvious. 

" Oh, but you must promise,” she insisted. 

” I promise,” he said. She caught the hesitation in 
his voice. 


63 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

“ Honestly ? " 

He felt he must say yes, and did so with as much 
conviction as he could command. 

She nodded her satisfaction. 

" That's all right then." 

After a pause she continued. 

“ Of course the State ought to support you. Have you 
asked them ? " 

"Yes, rather. I’ve got all I’m going to get." 

" Isn't it enough ? " 

" It’s about enough to buy clothes with." 

" How wicked. How perfectly wicked. Then you 
really will want my hundred a year until you are quite 
well again. I suppose there are other men who have 
been wounded like you and want money." 

" Thousands of them." 

" How terrible. Oh I do love them. I love them all. 
I wonder what I could do for them. Perhaps Aunt 
Susan would—no. Aunt Susan's old. It wouldn’t be 
fair." 

She pondered for a little, and broke out, 

“ I’m so glad you’re not one of the Piccadilly army." 

" I beg your pardon ? " 

" The Piccadilly army. It’s an expression that 
Marcella invented. She’s so clever. You know where 
the London clubs are, Piccadilly and Pall Mall and St. 
James’s Street. Marcella took me round and showed me 
all the young men. They never do anything except 
dissipation and shooting. They didn’t go to the war." 

" I'm sorry to differ from you, Miss Swift, but I don’t 
believe that." 

" Oh, but they didn’t. Marcella told me so. They 
stayed in Whitehall." 

She saw disagreement in his face. 

" Do you know any of them ? ’’ she asked. 

" Yes, quite a number." 

" Did they go to the war ? ’’ 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


64 

“ Every man jack of them.” 

She nodded her satisfaction. 

“ I should think your friends would. Some of them 
looked very nice. I was sorry for them. The first 
time I saw you I thought you were one of them. So 
did Marcella.” 

“ Perhaps Miss Tucker thinks so still.” 

“ But you aren’t, are you ? ” 

“ I have one club in Piccadilly, and one in Pall Mall, 
and one in St. James’s Street.” 

“ I must tell Marcella that. She will be pleased to 
hear it. I think she is under a false impression.” 

” I daresay,” he said drily. 

With obvious happiness in her face, she looked abroad 
again at the landscape that lay before them. It was a 
glorious picture and it aroused in her a profound con¬ 
tentment. Besides that there was the satisfying con¬ 
viction that she had settled, quickly and efficiently, that 
little business affair of dividing her income. 

She turned to the young man. 

“ Strictly speaking,” she said, “ we ought to make out 
a deed. Auntie's lawyers could do that. It goes 
something like this : I Glorinda Swift do hereby give 
to you—By the way, what is your Christian name ? ” 

“ Rupert. Rupert Lestrange is my full name.” 

“ What a nice name. Why were you called Rupert? ” 

“ I have an uncle Robert, who refuses to have any 
god-children, so my father called me Rupert. It was 
the nearest he could get to Robert.” 

“ Why won't your uncle Robert have any god¬ 
children ? ” 

“ He has too many nephews and he is very rich.” 

“ He isn’t a communist, then ? ” 

" Far from it.” 

“ How sad. I believe I could persuade him to be a 
communist, but I won’t. Can you guess why ? ” 

" Why, please ? " 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 65 

" Because I want you to have my money and not his." 

Rupert, too much embarrassed to speak, looked in 
silence at the landscape. But he was less occupied with 
the scenery than with thoughts of the astoundingly 
ignorant and generous girl by his side. He cast furtive 
glances at her. She turned suddenly to him, and looked 
him full in the face. 

With perfect frankness she said, 

" Rupert, I believe I love you." 

He blushed furiously. 

‘‘ I was beginning to suspect it," she went on. “ People 
sometimes fall suddenly in love. Marcella fell in love 
with me just like that." 

This remark at any rate gave him his much desired 
opportunity of opening his lips and showing that he was 
not absolutely dumb. 

" And you with Miss Tucker ? " he asked. 

"Yes, of course. She is the most wonderful person I 
have ever met. I can’t imagine anyone more wonderful 
anywhere. She has such splendid ideas. I told you 
about Communism." 

He reflected. Miss Swift appeared to be attributing 
to Miss Tucker the invention of the whole theory and 
practice of Communism. 

" There were communists before Miss Tucker," he 
ventured. 

“ Of course there were. The early Christians. But 
it was forgotten until people like Marcella took it up 
again. She is so fervent and genuine and true. She 
lights up everything that she talks about. For example, 
I was talking to you about love. Marcella has the most 
perfect ideas about love. She says there should be no 
distinction of sex, no dual morality." 

Fortunately she did not seem to be pressing him for an 
opinion. He could not in truth have given any clear- 
cut judgment, although he was conscious at the back 
of his mind of a vague feeling that if there was a relaxa- 


66 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


tion of morality, the woman was the one who was the 
more likely to suffer for it. And dual morality sounded 
to him like very much the same thing as dual immorality. 
His head whirled with possible and impossible evasions. 
But time passed and no reply came to his lips. At last 
the delay forced him to murmur feebly : “ Oh, quite so, 
quite so.” 

Glorinda ran on impetuously : 

“ And love should be free. It should be freely offered, 
and as freely accepted. Just like money, if you can 
compare love with such a contemptible thing as money. 
Don’t you think so ? ” 

He was completely at a loss for an answer. How was 
he to find words to cloak his sentiments in the adequate 
conventional vagueness ? 

" It must be spontaneous, of course,” Glorinda pur¬ 
sued. “ My love for you is spontaneous. I wonder if 
you are going to love me. You haven’t begun already, 
have you ? That would be jolly.” 

She laughed gaily. 

He had never experienced such intense discomfort. 
His sole idea was to be kind to her inexperience, to put 
an end to the interview, to put her off as best he could 
with evasive answers, until someone could be found who 
would enlighten her as to the difference between Mar¬ 
cella’s theories and ordinary human practice. 

” It’s a serious matter,” he said awkwardly. 

" Of course it is,” she replied. “ Marcella says it’s 
the most important thing in the world. Eugenics, you 
know. People are most careless about it, when they 
ought to be very, very cautious. Perhaps,” she regarded 
him with a look of great seriousness, “ perhaps I had 
better wait for a day or two, before I say anything more.” 

He was studying the ground. His confusion was not 
abating. He flashed a helpless glance at her. There 
was a suspicion of amusement in his thoughts, and there 
was a good deal of indignation against the people who had 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 67 

allowed her to grow up in ignorance, but principally 
there was the sudden consciousness that swept over him 
and overwhelmed him, so that his breath caught and 
his heart stopped beating; the consciousness that she 
had in one moment become all the world to him. 

She was watching him attentively. 

“ I think you have been out long enough,” she 
announced. “ Let me help you back to the house.” 

Nearer to betraying his emotion than he dared to 
realize, he looked up at her and took the strong white 
hand which was stretched out to help him. 

When he had risen to his feet, he dropped her hand, 
but she linked her arm in his, and they walked slowly 
towards the house. Glorinda broke the silence. 

“ I am rather sorry I said I loved you.” 

“ Why ? ” 

“ It puts me at a disadvantage. I seem to be sug¬ 
gesting that you ought to love me. It would be nicer 
if it were absolutely simultaneous. Doesn’t it make you 
want to love me, when I tell you that I love you ? ” 

Rupert’s amusement took command of him for the 
instant, and he laughed, and spoke rashly : 

” Oh, anybody would love you.” 

Glorinda cried out in exultation : 

" Then you do love me. I nearly guessed it. How 
splendid.” She unlinked her arm from his, and went 
round in front of him, and faced him. She put her hands 
on his shoulders. 

“ Dear boy, I shall look after you.” 

Then she drew his face to hers, and kissed him. 


CHAPTER IX 

Miss Lancaster and General Bellamy were seated in 
the loggia of the Villa Stellini, awaiting the arrival of 
tea. They were engaged in gossiping shamelessly about 
people* one’s fellow-men being on the whole, when 
all is said and done, the most intriguing subject of 
conversation. 

“ He’s a fine lad,” said the General. 

" I find him reserved,” rejoined Miss Lancaster. 
" But I rather admire that.” 

“ He’s not really reserved in the least. Once he knows 
who you are he’s as frank as possible. Like me he 
belongs to an old army family. His people and mine 
have served together all over the world.” 

“ How delightful. That’s a wonderful thing about the 
army.” 

“ It used to be, but there’s precious little of it now, 
and soon there’s going to be less. If you knew the 
changes ! ” He shook his head sadly. “ So you see 
he has no secrets from an old soldier. I admit that he 
rather gives one the impression of putting on side, but 
I have never paid any attention to that sort of thing. 
I’ll have none of their silly airs, and I always tell 'em 
so, straight out. What these young fellows want is a 
little tact.” 

“ You're the soul of kindness, Jacky, and they find 
you out immediately. Is his wound serious ? ” 

“ It ought to have healed long ago. He got a bit of a 
high explosive shell in the ribs, and there’s a horrid 
great—” 

” Oh don’t. Poor fellow.” 

" He has had to leave the army, and he has lost all his 
investments as well. You know how the war treated 
people. A few got beastly rich, and the rest of us got 
beastly poor.” 

" That’s quite true. And it seems to me as if there 
68 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 69 

never was a time when a poor man was made to feel his 
poverty so keenly as now/’ 

" For people like us it’s the motor-car that shows up 
the difference. Before the war I could walk or take a 
cab, and the richest man couldn't do more. But nowa¬ 
days one is made to realize definitely about six times a 
day that one was made to swallow other people’s dust.” 

“ It's a curious position for us. We belong to the 
same class as they do—” 

" Oh, do we indeed ? I’m dashed if we do. A member 
of my golf club said to a bounder who drove up in his 
flashy new car, ‘ A thing like that isn’t a car. To a poor 
man like me it’s a damned insult.’ ” 

** Jacky, stop, we're talking like Bolsheviks.” 

“ Quite right, too. But I can tell you one thing, my 
grandsons are not going into the navy or the army, or 
any form of public service whatsoever. I’m not going 
to have them paupers. I've worked hard for thirty 
years for my miserable pension. I've been through two 
big wars and half-a-dozen frontier affairs, and at the 
end of it all I find my pension is worth exactly half of 
what I expected.” 

" Your sons are in the army.” 

" Yes, worse luck, and how they are going to educate 
their children God only knows.” 

Miss Lancaster pondered, thinking distressfully of the 
uncomfortable and humiliating shifts to which well- 
bred poverty is reduced. 

" This young man has no prospects ? ” she asked. 

" Fortunately for him he has. His uncle is Sir Robert 
Lestrange, head of Burbage and Lestrange.” 

“ My brother knew them. He was in business. It is 
to him that Glorinda and I owe our little annuities.” 

" Dom never handled his month's pay beyond the 
twenty-four hours.” 

" Dear Dom. He left nothing. How do you find 
Glorinda ? ” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


70 

“ We get on splendidly together. I tell her stories 
about her father. She's a great girl." 

“ She'll be an exceptional woman." 

“ She’s that already." 

“ How do you like Miss Tucker ? " 

“ I detest her. She’s a holy terror. I can’t think 
where the attraction lies." 

" Glorinda has known practically no girls, and no 
men either, except perhaps the vicar or the gardener. 
Miss Tucker is putting all sorts of strange ideas into her 
head. You were quite right in what you said the other 
day. I was a coward not to tell her things sooner. I 
was shirking my plain duty. I must do so no longer. 
One thing is, Glorinda’s so intelligent. The merest 
hint would be sufficient." 

“ No," said the General emphatically. “ Plain speak¬ 
ing is what is wanted. Plenty of it, and immediately. 
Don't mince matters. Do it at once. Miss Tucker has 
stolen a march on you already." 

Glorinda approached. When the General caught sight 
of her he burst into laughter at the recollection of a 
thing she had said. He turned to Miss Lancaster. 

“ Oh, I must tell you something. You know that 
bronze boar in the Market where they sell straw hats ? " 

“ Yes, the Medici Boar. Isn't it a beauty ? " 

" Your niece says it is the sweetest thing in Florence, 
and exactly like me." 

“ Glorinda ! " said Miss Lancaster. 

Glorinda smiled inattentively. Her mind was 
seemingly occupied with some other subject. She 
looked placidly and happily out over the landscape, 
then fixed her gaze on her aunt. 

“ Aunt Susan ! " 

“ Yes, darling." 

“ I know what love is." 

The aunt, startled, regarded her niece with interest 
and fear. Collecting herself, she replied: 


7 1 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

“ But you have always known what love is.” 

“ Oh yes, of course, Auntie, I have always loved you. 
But it is different now. Even my love for you is 
different. It used to be a sort of unconscious thing. 
It is just like a picture that has been hanging in a bad 
light. You bring the picture out into the sunshine and 
then you really see it for the first time.” 

Thoughts raced through Miss Lancaster’s head. It 
took, as a rule, the usual five years for a girl to grow from 
thirteen to eighteen, but Glorinda had effected the 
transition in a fortnight. This was not impossible, as 
she suddenly realized to herself with contrition and 
consternation. The merest small spark of enlighten¬ 
ment would find the fuel heaped ready for the burning. 
She reproached herself bitterly. She had delayed too 
long. She snatched at a vague hope that perhaps there 
was no harm done yet. 

The General, thrown out of action for the moment, 
looked at everything in the world except his companions. 
Then suddenly, with a warning glance, he said. 

“ Here’s the Marchese.” 

Glorinda leaped to her feet and looked over the 
balustrade and cried out. 

" O Marchese, you’re just in time for tea. Do join us.” 

The Marchese added himself to the group, and sat 
down. 

“ Now we only want Rupert,” said Glorinda. 

Rupert ! 

The General and Miss Lancaster flashed a glance at 
each other. 

Already ! 

The General frowned fiercely. That young rascal. 
A penniless cripple, to meet this beautiful girl and take 
advantage of her ignorance and inexperience. The 
damned young sweep. It was none of the General’s 
business. But there were cases when it was a man’s 
duty to interfere, and by gad ! this was one of them. 


72 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


The Marchese, without appearing to have looked at 
anyone, seemed to have grasped the situation. He felt 
himself to be an intruder, and had an impulse to rise and 
go. He had, however, another and stronger impulse, 
which was, to remain where he was, in silent adoration of 
Glorinda's beauty; and, like a wise old man, he did 
what pleased himself. 

Glorinda, in serene unconsciousness, went on. There 
was a great peace and happiness in her face. 

“ Yes, Aunt Susan, everything is different. The whole 
world. Look at Florence now. And all since yester¬ 
day/* 

Miss Lancaster rallied her powers of speech. 

“ May I ask at what time precisely Captain Lestrange 
declared himself ? ” 

Glorinda laughed gaily. 

“ O he hasn’t declared himself at all. I suppose he's 
what they call shy. I had to dig it out of him. You 
know, Auntie, when I told him I loved him, he blushed 
like anything.” 

" Glorinda ! Do you mean to tell me you told him 
that ? ” 

Glorinda, astonished at her aunt’s emotion, protested. 

“ But, Auntie, why not ? ” 

“ My dear, it isn’t done.” 

“ But why isn't it done ? ” 

The whole fabric of Miss Lancaster’s beliefs rocked. 
She had been put to the question. She had been asked 
to render a reason for a conviction that was an integral 
part of her constitution. 

" Can’t you see it for yourself ? ” she protested. 
" Suppose he had said ' No.’ ” 

" Don’t women say * No ’ sometimes ? Marcella says it 
is one of the most ridiculous of the old conventions that 
a man can tell his love, but a woman isn't free to tell 
hers. Woman must be equally free to make advances. 
Surely that is obvious,” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


73 

The aunt, in a shocked silence, repeated the objec¬ 
tionable word to herself, “ Advances ! ” What were 
things coming to ? 

“ But, my dear child, will you tell me where that sort 
of thing is going to stop ? " 

“ That, of course," said Glorinda, repeating glibly 
one of the maxims she had learnt from Marcella, “ that 
of course, is for the people to decide, who are primarily 
concerned." 

With a didactic superiority, which was as absurd as 
it was charming, she continued. 

“ The young must make their own mistakes and find 
their own remedies. But I’m not making a mistake." 

General Bellamy threw them a warning glance. 
Captain Lestrange was coming towards them. Glorinda 
leaped to her feet and set a chair for him. 

“ Rupert, you must sit beside Aunt Susan. She is 
your aunt now. Why do you persist in walking stiffly, 
if it is easier for you to limp ? We know all about your 
wound by this time." 

Shamefacedly Rupert accepted the chair, and, 
summoning up all his available courage, confronted 
Glorinda and the company. Glorinda resumed. 

" I was just going to tell Aunt Susan that you insisted 
on delay. But now that things are settled between us, 
I think she will be sensible and take my view." 

The General found comfort in this remark. If Captain 
Lestrange had been proposed to, and was insisting on 
delay, perhaps he was not a rascal or a sweep after 
all. To be sure, the lad was a gentleman. Good. 
He nodded his approval towards Miss Lancaster. 
Glorinda intercepted the approbation, but mistook its 
application. 

“ You see, Auntie dear, General Bellamy agrees with 
me." 

" No, no, no." The General shook his head vigor¬ 
ously. 


74 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

" I see you know all about it," said Rupert, addressing 
Miss Lancaster with great diffidence. “ What I sug¬ 
gested to your niece was that a man in my physical 
condition had no right to enter into any binding 
engagement." 

“ How utterly illogical ! " Glorinda protested. “ A 
man in your physical condition is just the person who 
wants a wife to look after him." 

But her assurance seemed to have no effect on Rupert’s 
attitude, and Glorinda continued. 

“ You must forgive me, Rupert, if I do the talking for 
both of us. I don’t mean to be rude and put you in the 
background. But I have always found that it is best 
to be absolutely frank and open in such matters. 
Rupert,"—she addressed her aunt, “ Rupert has no 
experience except of the public school and the army. 
Into these two institutions,—I am quoting Marcella,— 
into these two institutions no new idea has ever been 
known to penetrate. Rupert is at the same stage of 
mental development as I was at three weeks ago. But 
he is intelligent. Yes, Rupert, you are, for a man. 
And it wouldn't matter if you were not. I remember 
your telling me. Auntie, that it is the heart and not the 
head that rules the world. Isn't that true ? " 

Miss Lancaster replied faintly, “ Yes, dear." 

Glorinda turned to Rupert. 

" I have just been explaining to Aunt Susan and 
General Bellamy, that in affairs of the primary instincts, 
—General Bellamy, you are laughing." 

The General replied in a shaking voice : 

“ Not at all, my dear. Not at all. Pray proceed." 

" You were laughing. Now you have put me off. 
I’ve forgotten my quotation. But it doesn't matter. 
The point is that I love Rupert and Rupert loves me." 

She looked at Rupert for corroboration. There was a 
moment’s delay, and she protested, with a voice full of 
reproach : 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


75 


“ Rupert, you admitted that you loved me.” 

She looked at him with a scorn, which melted very 
quickly into a motherly affection. 

“ Dear boy,” she said, “ I shall never doubt your love. 
But your intelligence is another matter.” 

Rupert looked round the company. He saw a 
twinkling friendliness in General Bellamy's eyes. Miss 
Lancaster’s face displayed sheer dismay. The Marchese 
betrayed no emotion whatever ; he cast a long steady 
look first at Rupert and then at Glorinda, and then he 
seemed to withdraw into himself, in order to adjust the 
scene to some secret canons of romance. It was for 
Rupert, if anyone, to speak. But the situation was too 
complicated, and too public for him, and he sat on, in 
silent discomfort, until Miss Lancaster caught sight of 
the distress in his eyes, and took pity on him. 

" If you have finished tea, Glorinda,” she said, " you 
can take me for a walk in the olive garden.” 

The two rose to go. General Bellamy rose at the 
same time, glad to escape. Aunt and niece descended 
the slope towards the olive garden. But the General 
strode rapidly away in the other direction. Rupert 
was left alone with the Marchese. 

He heard Glorinda’s voice crying up to him from the 
olive garden : 

" Wait until I come for you, Rupert. I want to help 
you up the hill.” 


CHAPTER X 

Self-possession was the treasured characteristic of 
Rupert’s caste, and he was struggling hard to retain it. 
He had been swept away like a feather in the whirlwind 
of Glorinda's love; but he was a man, and he had his 
own part to play. He believed from the bottom of his 
heart that Glorinda was the noblest and most adorable 
girl in the world. On her behalf he was willing to 
sacrifice his own feelings to the uttermost; but equally, 
on her behalf, since she was utterly lacking in knowledge 
and prudence, it was his duty to restrain himself, and, a 
much more difficult task, to control her, to save her from 
the possible consequences of her infinitely charming 
recklessness. Could he succeed in this, and at the same 
time leave her convinced of his love ? And would she 
believe that his sober self-command was an obligation 
imposed on him by the very intensity of his love ? 

Rupert could not withhold himself from casting an 
uneasy glance of enquiry in the direction of the Marchese. 
He was sorely in need of a confidant; self-reliant as he 
was, he was aware that if he wished to hold his own 
against Glorinda's magnificent impetuosity, he would be 
none the worse for having such reinforcement as could be 
afforded him by the worldly-wise. 

But the Marchese’s face betrayed neither censure nor 
approbation. The Marchese twisted placidly the ends of 
his waxed moustaches. His deep brown eyes seemed 
fixed on some distant thing, some fancy of the imagina¬ 
tion rather than anything tangible. 

Rupert had the English taciturnity. To confide such 
matters even to an old friend would be an act of doubtful 
propriety; to tell his secret thoughts to an Italian and 
a stranger, was a proceeding that would violate all his 
traditions. He was none the less attracted by the dark, 
serious face. There was about it a reserve and an 
76 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


77 

impersonality which assured him that his confidence, if 
given, would not be abused. He felt curiously helpless ; 
the circumstances seemed to him unprecedented; and 
a dispassionate, elderly view might be extraordinarily 
valuable. 

The silence continued uncomfortably. Rupert’s 
impulse to speak became stronger; he began, but 
checked himself. The Marchese cast an occasional 
glance at the young man’s countenance, and read his 
thoughts without difficulty. When he considered that 
the situation had lasted long enough, he said, with his 
gentle smile. 

“ You will speak with me ? Is it not so ? ” 

Rupert laughed uneasily. 

" I feel that I ought to speak to someone.” 

“ It is perhaps not a question that you would decide 
for yourself ? ” 

” You know how matters stand, I suppose. In any 
case, if I want your advice I must tell you frankly. 
I had been speaking to Miss Swift for only a few minutes 
and she—she— 

“ She made a declaration of love ? ” 

"Yes. But I’m bound to say I lost no time in 
reciprocating.” 

“ You love each other.” 

“ There is no possible doubt about that.” 

“I am sure of it myself. I was sure of it from the 
first moment, when I saw you disputing which of you 
was to carry the suit case. From that moment you 
loved each other. Is it not so ? ” 

" That seems to me quite possible, Marchese.” 

“ Well,” the Marchese continued, “ you and the 
Signorina Glorinda—pardon me if I mention her Christian 
name ; I always think of her as the Signorina Glorinda. 
So, in fact, do Giulietta and Beppina and all of us— 
you and the Signorina Glorinda have declared your 
love. That is good. Is that not good ? ” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


78 

Rupert assented, but his reply was in the English 
reserved fashion, with a trace of mauvaise honte which 
annoyed the Marchese. 

“ Oh, but my God it is good ! It is benissimo ! It 
is the best thing in the world that you love each other." 

Rupert, slightly ashamed of himself, replied : 

"You must believe me. You must take it for granted, 
even if I don’t say much." 

" When you are married, Signor Lestrange, I hope you 
will not expect your wife always to take it for granted. 
However, I am not your wife—I take it for granted. 
You love her. Well, what then ? " 

" Miss Swift insists on a formal engagement and 
immediate marriage." 

" That is good also. Can you hope for anything 
better ? What is your trouble ? Why do you ask for 
advice ? There is no advice necessary." 

" Let me tell you some more. I am very seriously 
wounded. I have had several operations. I have come 
down here to rest, and to prepare for an operation, which 
I hope will be the last." 

The Marchese nodded gravely. 

" I am myself a surgeon," he said. 

" Assume,” Rupert continued, " that the operation 
is successful. I shall be in a precarious state of health 
for a considerable time." 

" Not precarious. You will be all right. But it will 
take time for you to recover. Say a year. You will 
want someone to look after you." 

Rupert put aside the suggestion, and went on with his 
story. 

" I have practically no private means, and even if the 
prospects which I have are realized, which is doubtful, 
I may not be in a position to support a wife for some 
years." 

" Will it cost more to support you and the Signorina 
Glorinda when you are married than it does now ? " 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 79 

" It always does, doesn’t it ? In my case I should be 
earning nothing during my convalescence. But I 
want to leave myself out of the question. It is Miss 
Swift I have to think of. I feel that in the circum¬ 
stances I am somehow—” he hesitated for the right 
word, “ unimportant.” 

The Marchese raised his eyebrows. That was a 
curious expression for a young man to use. One thing 
that Captain Lestrange’s manner had conveyed through¬ 
out was, that in an affair of this sort, the first thing to be 
considered was the feelings of Miss Swift. His own 
feelings counted for nothing. This was all very tactful, 
very correct, very English. But there were greater 
issues at stake than mere propriety. From the Mar- 
chese's point of view this was an occasion for rhapsody, 
for lyrical fierce devotion, for utter disregard of anything 
but the primal issue of love. That, he was convinced, 
would be the Signorina Glorinda’s attitude ; as soon, 
that is to say, as the Signorina Glorinda had fully 
realized certain things which she was now learning very 
rapidly. 

Unimportant ? Assuredly, in another and quite a 
different sense, the young man was unimportant. 
Captain Lestrange did not yet know, had not even 
begun to suspect, the unusualness of his position. He 
was a thoroughly unexceptionable youth of^admirable 
type and winning personality, and, modest though he 
was, he had in him more than the elements of the heroic. 
But in the Marchese’s opinion he resembled Glorinda in 
not being fully awake to the implications of his position. 
Supposing that the world contained a thousand young 
men as desirable as Rupert Lestrange. Against that 
you had to set the fact that the Signorina Glorinda was 
unique. In beauty she already stood alone ; in charac¬ 
ter she was already remarkable, and might very well in 
that respect too, aided by the reinforcement of her 
beauty, become a unique personality. Was Captain 


80 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

Lestrange unimportant ? Yes, assuredly. The young 
man had spoken more truly than he knew. The Mar- 
chese nodded sympathetically. 

" Precisely," he said. " You fear to make a mistake, 
but it is not on your own account that you are afraid." 

" That is so. I find the situation extraordinarily 
difficult." 

A faint smile played over the Marchese's lips. 

" Not so," he said. 

“ What do you mean by that ? " 

“ The situation is far from difficult. It is, on the 
contrary, simple. Oh, most simple. The simplest 
situation in the world." 

" I wish I could see it in that light." 

"You will. Your course is clear. You have but one 
thing to do." 

" What is that ? " 

" To obey." 

" To obey whom ? " 

" The Signorina £lorinda." 

Rupert seemed puzzled. 

" I’ll do anything. Anything. I don't want to put 
myself forward in the very slightest. I don’t want to 
say or do anything that would suggest that Miss Swift 
has—." He hesitated. " I mean to say that I have the 
profoundest admiration and—" he hesitated again. 

" You English ! " laughed the Marchese. " Can not 
you say simply that you love her ? Are you sure of that ? 
But I need not ask you. I can see it for myself." 

After a pause and a difficult struggle to express him¬ 
self, Rupert continued: 

" What I mean is that I'm prepared to give way in 
every respect, so long as it doesn’t do her any harm. 
What I'm afraid of is that she may be doing something 
that she'll be sorry for afterwards. I am mortally 
afraid of taking an unfair advantage of her. She is 
such a child." 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


81 


“ That is very true. She is a child. And, like a 
child, she reaches out for the first thing she sees. By the 
grace of God it is a good thing that she is asking for. 
But it might have been otherwise, very, very easily. 
And remember this, though she does not know it yet, 
a year hence she will have the world at her feet. Leave 
her to herself, and a year hence what will she be 
demanding ? " 

Rupert was silent. The Marchese gave a little laugh, 
and continued : 

“ I can see trouble, great trouble. It is already 
beginning at this very moment, because you are disposed 
to resist her. But I will put my case in another way. 
Here you have beauty. Beauty is at present asking for 
one thing only, and that thing is you. This beauty is 
innocent; incomparably, exquisitely innocent. She is 
so ineffably innocent that she is capable in all seriousness 
of making the most absurd demands. She might, for 
example—pardon me for what I am about to say, but 
we Italians are franker in these matters than you 
English—she is capable of asking you to give her a baby. 
But a year hence, what will she be demanding ? Beauty 
demands anything and everything. Beauty such as 
hers insists on having the whole world, and gets it, at a 
cost. If you want to have her, you must take her very, 
very soon/' 

Rupert broke in impatiently, not without a touch of 
indignation. 

“ Pardon me, Marchese, if I don’t see how that arises 
out of the present situation. My position is that I am 
not physically fit to marry. Also, I have little money and 
no definite prospects. There must be a certain delay. 
And Miss Swift's ignorance and inexperience undoubtedly 
must be taken into consideration." 

The Marchese smiled, a little cynically. 

" Pardon me, my outlook is not the same as yours. 
Miss Swift is, as you say, ignorant and inexperienced. 


82 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

If you do not mind, I will go so far as to say that she is 
crude, and, from a worldly point of view, even foolish. 
But do not imagine that you are now seeing her true 
nature. She is not a fool. She is merely young. 
I am an old man, and we old men acquire a faculty. We 
lose much, but we gain at least this: we are able to 
discover the potentialities of young people. That is to 
say, some of us gain this faculty, not all. I will tell 
you about Miss Swift. In the immediate future she will 
develop quickly. But she will do more than that. All 
her life long, her experience will grow on great lines. 
Every decade will see her wiser and stronger. I tell 
you so because I know. You must judge her by what 
she is going to become, not by what she is. Ten years, 
ah, it is a long, long time to you, but what is it to 
me?” 

Rupert was thinking conscientiously, but could find 
nothing to say. The Marchese went on. 

“ She will make great mistakes. One can see that. 
But do you not want to be with her from the very 
beginning ? She will want you." 

There was no reply from Rupert, and the Marchese 
resumed, with increased seriousness. 

" In my lifetime of nearly seventy years, I have seen 
four supremely beautiful women. The first became a 
queen, the second became a king's mistress, the third 
died of disease in the pauper ward of an infirmary. 
The fourth—" 

He looked at Rupert. After a pause— 

“ The fourth is the Signorina Swift. You have a 
great responsibility." 

Rupert could hardly help casting a glance of depreca¬ 
tion at the Marchese. Surely his mentor was attempting 
to put too heavy a burden on his shoulders. But the 
Marchese continued ruthlessly. 

“ So you must obey. You have no choice. You will 
wonder why I speak to you thus. I will tell you. Ever 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 83 

since my childhood I have worshipped beauty. There 
was only one thing in the world that I thought it possible 
I could become, and that was a painter. And when I 
grew up I discovered that I had not the hands for it. 
I could see, oh, very clearly, but I could not reproduce. 
I was a worshipper, but, alas ! I was no artist. Who 
can tell how often that happens ? It is one of the world’s 
greatest tragedies. A woman, who has the soul and the 
music and the rhythm of a Pavlova, may be born with 
limbs that cannot interpret these things. I have felt 
this anguish myself, so I know. But I loved the human 
body, so I became a surgeon. My hands were good 
enough for that.” He shrugged his shoulders. “ But 
why do I talk about myself ? It is of the Signorina that 
we talk. Let me tell you another thing. I have 
studied the lives of the beautiful women of all ages, and 
I tell you that Beauty and Fate are inseparably linked 
together. In all history you will not see one woman of 
supreme beauty without, at the same time seeing on her 
the shadow of the wings of Fate. Fate hovers over her 
from her cradle. Always there is an evil genius. 
Always. Spiritually, morally, physically, in some way 
or other, an unusual Fate dominates her existence. If 
you take the Signorina Swift to be your own now, it is 
true that you may never know another moment's peace 
of mind. Nevertheless you must take her. And you 
are not a fool. You know yourself that if you do not 
take her to-day, there are a million who will wish to take 
her to-morrow.” 

He rose to go, but he turned as he went, and spoke 
again. 

“ If you want her, take her quickly. You understand 
that you have no choice. You must do as she bids you. 
For her own sake you must do it.” 

He went a few paces away. But a thought occurred 
to him, and he faced the youth again. 

” You have seen that Miss Tucker ? ” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


84 

“ Yes.” 

“ Do you like her ? ” 

“ No.” 

“ I will tell you about Miss Tucker. In a way, there 
is no harm in her. In another way there is. You may 
think that I am a fanciful old fool. But I have studied. 

I know my psychology. Miss Tucker is what people in 
the Middle Ages called ‘ possessed.’ Whether it was a 
good spirit or an evil spirit that possessed her, I did not 
at first know. But now I know. It is an evil spirit. 
Do you agree with me? ” 

“ I confess I haven’t much use for Miss Tucker.” 

" The special danger lies in the fact that she loves the 
Signorina Glorinda, loves her passionately and blindly ; 
and blind love works greater harm than hatred. You 
must take Miss Swift away from Miss Tucker. Quickly.” 

Again he turned to go, but checked himself. 

" Another point. Consider. Do not imagine from 
what I have said that I am despising you, that I think 
you of no account compared with the Signorina Swift. 
No. It is because I believe that you are worthy of her 
that I speak thus frankly to you. She loves you truly. 
You are her first lover. A woman’s first lover is never 
supplanted, never, in a woman’s heart. In her behaviour 
yes, perhaps, but in her heart no. And you will be able 
to hold her. There are not many who could, but you 
are one of them. Ah, I tell you, from the first morning 
when I saw you two together, looking into each other’s 
eyes and laughing, I have known what I tell you. For her 
sake, for her sake, I tell you, let yourself go. Do as she 
bids you.” 

Rupert shook his head obstinately. This talk of 
beauty and fate was outside his experience, and, he must 
confess, rather above his head. He stood his ground. 

“ It seems to me to be pre-eminently a case for doing 
exactly the right thing and nothing else.” 

The Marchese shrugged his shoulders, and resumed: 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 85 

" You laugh at me ? I do not care. I go on with 
my sermon. I told you when I was young I would be an 
artist, but my God humbled me. He said, ‘You may feel, 
but you shall not create.’ That was terrible for me. It 
came near to killing me. After a time when my despair 
had grown cold, I had to seek a living. I discovered that 
my love of art had left me with one enthusiasm. That 
was a reverence for the human body, the wonderful 
machine which God has made in his own image to 
carry out hi9 purpose. So I became a surgeon and after 
some years I found my God again. There are many 
ways that go to God, and science is one of them. But 
your way to God is through conduct. It is right conduct 
that has for you a sacramental value. It is a difficult 
way and very noble. There is only one way that is more 
noble.” 

" What is that ? ” 

“ In common speech, it is Love. Love of God, love 
of fellow man. It is Jesus Christ, it is Francis of Assisi. 
Call it religion, faith, mysticism, what you will. It is 
the thing that rules and harmonizes all other things.” 

Rupert felt himself straining against guidance which 
was in some curious way, which he could not express, 
uncongenial to his character. 

" I’ve already told you that I don’t quite see what you 
are aiming at. One can’t do better than do the right 
thing.” 

“ That is true. Still, there is-what I have told 

you.” 

The Marchese turned and walked away. 



CHAPTER XI 


“ Oh, Jacky, I’m simply distracted. 0 

“ My dear Susan, I see no reason for this excessive 
anguish. He is a very fine young fellow, and his pros¬ 
pects are not to be despised. Why not let them be 
engaged at once, and have no more fuss about it ? " 

“ It’s far too sudden. Affairs like that are always 
broken off." 

“ Well, suppose it is broken off. It's always an 
adventure for the girl. Let her have her fling. You can 
trust them, surely." 

" That isn’t exactly what is worrying me for the 
present. It’s worse than that. It's that friend of 
Glorinda’s that she brought with her." 

"Ah, Miss Tucker. Extraordinary female ! What 
has she been up to ? Some mischief, I bet." 

" She doesn't strike me as meaning to be mischievous. 
From my old-fashioned point of view she’s just a 
little crazy. But she makes mischief all the same." 

“ Give me some details, Susan." 

“ I hate to do it. It goes against the grain terribly. 
But you know me so well, Jacky, and I haven’t any 
old friend nearer than a thousand miles. You’ll forgive 
me, won’t you ? You'll understand that I'm simply 
being forced to talk about things that I wouldn't men¬ 
tion to a man in ordinary circumstances." 

“ Go ahead, my dear. I'll look the other way when 
you come to the funny bits." 

“ Well, you know, when I left Glorinda in town, she 
was most shamefully abandoned by her cousins. She 
never had a meal in the house except breakfast, and they 
all had breakfast in bed. So she was completely taken 
possession of by Miss Tucker. You can’t conceive to 
what an extent that horrid girl got hold of her. You 
know that Glorinda is as innocent as a baby, and Miss 
86 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 87 

Tucker was the first person of that sort she had ever 
met. So Miss Tucker simply did as she pleased with her. 
I do believe that Glorinda is as innocent as a baby still, 
but anything might have happened, absolutely anything. 
Such ideas ! I simply shudder to think what the dear 
girl has escaped." 

She clasped her hands, and her countenance bore 
witness to her distress and agitation. 

" And it's all my fault," she concluded with deep 
contrition. 

“ But you say that Glorinda’s all right." 

“ Oh yes, yes. Thank heaven for that." 

“ Then if there is no harm done, I don’t really think 
there is anything to be distressed about." 

" Oh but listen. It is the ideas, Jacky." Miss 
Lancaster paused to summon up her resolution. “ I'll 
tell you one incident. Miss Tucker goes principally 
with an artistic set. They are very, very Bohemian." 

" I know. I’ve seen ’em. Dirt and bad manners." 

" There is a very rich man, rather a horrid man I 
think, and he has a big house near London with a private 
swimming bath. He had all Miss Tucker’s set out to 
luncheon, and after luncheon they were all making fun 
of the objection some people had to being seen without 
their clothes on. They called it bourgeois. It turned 
out that quite a number of them had been to bathing 
parties last summer where nobody wore any clothes. 
Well, after luncheon was over, some one proposed that 
they should all go downstairs and bathe. And—oh my 
dear, my dear, what a world ! would you believe it ? 
They all went and bathed without a stitch of clothes on. 
Jacky, can you believe it ? ’’ 

" I can, easily. In fact, I've seen it myself. Last 
summer I went out to pay a call at a place in the north 
of Ireland. I was told at the house that the lady had 
taken her guests down to a picnic on the sea shore. So 
I followed up, till I came to a little rocky cove with a 


88 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


sandy beach, and there I found them. And by Gad, 
there was a round dozen of them of all ages and both 
sexes, and not a rag among them to bless themselves 
with. This is awkward, I thought. How am I going 
to speak to my hostess ? Then a fellow came up to me, 
as naked as an eel, and as cool as a cucumber, and said, 
‘ That’s your hostess, the lady with the bathing dress.' ” 

“ Jacky, you don’t really mean to tell me that that 
is true.” 

“ Of course it’s true.” And after a little he added : 
“ I guess, Susan, you and I are a bit old-fashioned.” 

Miss Lancaster continued, as near to excitement as her 
placid nature permitted. 

“ But that isn't nearly all. It is the end of it that is 
so extraordinary. There they were, all splashing about 
in the water with nothing on, and suddenly Glorinda 
came out of her dressing cubicle. There were one or 
two quite good artists there, Sarah Oldham, for example. 
She is quite famous in her own way. And Hugh 
Ferrier, he’s another of the rising ones. They say 
Sarah Oldham is quite a beautiful woman. Well, as 
soon as she caught sight of Glorinda, she ran up to Hugh 
Ferrier and pointed out Glorinda to him. Then one 
by one they all stopped playing the fool, and started 
staring at Glorinda. Then Sarah Oldham said, * Dear 
friends, I’m not competing. I’m going away to hide 
myself in my clothes.' So they all went away, and as 
Sarah Oldham put it, hid themselves in their clothes. 
All # of them, that is to say, except Glorinda. They 
simply wouldn’t allow her to dress. They built up a 
throne with cushions, and set her on it, and gathered 
round her and worshipped. They said they never felt 
so ashamed of themselves in their lives. After seeing 
Glorinda they couldn’t bear to think of themselves 
without the protection of clothing.” 

" That was a curious result.” said the General. 

” It was strange, wasn’t it ? All the time Miss Tucker 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 89 

was telling me about it she was laughing at me. I could 
see that. So I didn’t know whether I ought to appear 
to be shocked. I wasn't going to seem shocked just to 
amuse her.” 

“ She’s the devil,” said General Bellamy. 

” That’s all very well, but there is one point thaf you 
haven’t seen. Don’t you see that Glorinda appearing 
like that and making all these silly, improper creatures 
ashamed of themselves is just the one thing that somehow 
seems to justify the whole affair ? As Sarah Oldham says, 
they had to go and hide themselves. Miss Tucker, of 
course, takes the high line. She says that a beautiful 
nude woman is worth a hundred sermons on decency. 
Of course, she’s hopelessly wrong. It was a horrid thing 
of her to allow from our point of view.” 

The General seemed puzzled. 

” Oh, Jacky,” she cried, “ don't desert me. Of course 
it was horrid and wicked.” 

” I suppose so,” said the General doubtfully. 

“ Jacky, you know it is wrong as well as I do.” 

“ Well, Susan, when first I caught sight of that picnic 
party, I was shocked. I was frankly shocked. And 
you know it takes something to shock an old ruffian 
like me. But I took it calmly, and sat down and spoke 
to my hostess, and I give you my word of honour that 
after five minutes I didn’t care if the whole world went 
naked. It seemed to me the most natural thing in the 
world. It wasn't pretty, you understand. Far from 
pretty. Not one man in a dozen strips well, and not one 
woman in a hundred. But 'pon my word the only 
objection I could see to it was that it was so dashed 
ugly. If everybody did it, people would buck up and 
improve their physique.” 

“ But everybody doesn’t.” 

" Well but suppose—” 

” Oh I can’t reason about it. I can only thank heaven 


90 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

that Glorinda is out of it and safe here. Oh it is dreadful, 
dreadful.” 

" Generally speaking, I’m bound to say I agree with 
you.” 

" There were other things just as shocking in their 
way. Miss Tucker, of course, believes in the absolute 
equality of the sexes. She maintains that the same 
moral code ought to apply to men as to women. Take 
the question of this modem dancing, for example. She 
was talking to me about that. It appears she took 
Glorinda out to some semi-private dances at hotels and 
places. It seems that the modern dances are so com¬ 
plicated that one is practically obliged to have the same 
partner every evening. Of course, young men are 
always scarce and they get most horribly spoilt. So it 
is quite common for a girl to pay her partner's expenses, 
taxi and supper and so on. And the rich young women 
have a regular partner on a fixed salary.” 

General Bellamy corroborated. 

** That's a fact. I know a middle-aged man, first- 
class dancer, not a bit good looking, who makes ten 
guineas a week out of being a partner. Not counting 
perquisites.” 

Miss Lancaster held up her hands. 

" To me that is inconceivable. Well, Miss Tucker had 
made up her mind to shock me, and she went on to say 
that if a woman kept a man for dancing, she might just 
as well go a step farther and keep him for any other 
purpose.” 

" Going the whole hog, as they call it.” 

" And a most suitable description, I'm sure. Glorinda 
was there when she said that, but fortunately she did not 
understand. She laughed and said it would be great fun 
to have a man to run the house and keep the servants 
in order. You see the danger, don't you ? What am I 
to do ? ” 

General Bellamy meditated. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


9 * 

“ You must get her away from Miss Tucker,” he 
decided. 

“ Yes, but how ? I can’t ask the woman to leave the 
house, and I can hardly run away myself.” They 
remained silent for a little. Then the Generalsuggested : 

‘‘You must encourage this young man. He’ll knock 
out Miss Tucker quicker than anything.” 

“ I wanted you to say that. Immediately, do you 
think ? ” 

“ This very afternoon. There’s nothing like a good 
straight love affair. It’ll do them both a power of good. 
It'll stir him up a bit, for one thing. He’s all right, of 
course. There isn’t a better youngster anywhere. 
But he has been a trifle too well brought up, to my 
thinking.” 

“ I do think that that is the best way out of it. I’ll 
tell Glorinda, and will you tell Captain Lestrange ? ” 

“ That they are at liberty, as far as you are concerned, 
to consider themselves engaged. Certainly. I'll do 
that with pleasure. It will be a nasty knock for dear 
Marcella.” 

‘‘I’m sure I sincerely hope so,” rejoined Susan Lan¬ 
caster, and there was in her voice a viciousness to which 
it had been a stranger for many years. General Bellamy 
smiled at the unusual manifestation. 

“ Give the devil his due,” he said. “ That young 
woman wouldn't take a man’s seat in a ’bus.” 

“ Why wouldn’t she, if he offered it ? ” 

‘‘ She would play the game through, whatever it cost 
her.” 

“ Wouldn't she understand that there is such a thing 
as chivalry ? ” 

“ Ah, chivalry. Yes. Chivalry was a game and a 
very pretty game. But most of these modern young 
women forget that a shield has two sides to it. A man 
has to be a gentleman, granted. But there is an implied 
obligation that the woman has to be a lady. If a woman 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


92 

can take my job away from me, she is entitled to have it. 
That is hard fact. But if she wants my seat in the ’bus 
as well, I jolly well have a good look at her first. If she 
is old or hot or tired, or has that old-fashioned look of 
graciousness about her, she has my seat at once. But 
if she is an obvious minx, she can go and hang on her 
strap.” 

" What nonsense, Jacky. You know perfectly well 
that you wouldn’t let any lady stand for two seconds.” 

The General scowled and shook his head. 

" Not so, Susan, not so.” 

“ But yes. They know you at once.” 

" Oh, do they ? You just ask that little devil what she 
thinks of me.” 

" Jacky ! ” 

After a brief silence, they reverted to their previous 
topic. 

“ It’s a good thing,” said Miss Lancaster, " that Miss 
Tucker is away for the day.” 

“ Where has she gone ? I’ve been missing her pretty 
ways.” 

“ She has gone to Pisa with some friends.” 

“ Why should her presence make any difference ? ” 

" She is an impediment. There’s no doubt of that. 
I don’t know exactly how strong a hold she has over 
Glorinda. But I'm sure she is better away.” 

The General reflected. “ After all,” he concluded, " if 
you get back to the source of things, and the source is 
Dom, you’ll realise that no one on earth will ever have 
any hold over your niece.” 

“ You are utterly wrong there,” Miss Lancaster 
retorted. " There were some of us who had the strongest 
hold over him.” 

“ Yes, that's true too,” the General assented. " Dom 
was everything or nothing.” 

“ Dom would do anything for those who loved 
him.” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 93 

“ On the other hand he would do nothing at all out 
of respect for other people’s opinions.” 

“ Opinions ? No. I was talking of love. Glorinda 
is the same.” 

“ Then there won’t be any doubt in her mind as 
between young Lest range and Miss Tucker ? ” 

“ I’m not so sure. Miss Tucker did her a very good 
turn in London. There is practically no doubt in my 
mind that Glorinda would have been abducted within 
a few minutes of our leaving her, if it hadn’t been for 
Miss Tucker.” 

She recounted the details of the incident. The General 
listened in cold horror, and held up his hands. 

" My God ! Susan. That’s certainly one up to Miss 
Tucker. We can’t forget that.” 

“ Glorinda won’t forget it either, though I’m sure 
that she doesn’t half realize the danger she escaped.” 

General Bellamy spoke a little testily. “ There you 
are again, Susan, shirking your duty. If she doesn't 
realize it, she must be made to realize it. White slave 
traffic and everything. Rub it into her. It’s the only 
way with a girl who has been neglected as she has.” 

Miss Lancaster felt and looked guilty, and the General 
went on. 

“ Is she learning anything here ? I mean, do you 
think that she is picking up the everyday knowledge that 
will save her from that sort of thing ? ” 

" She is mostly with Miss Tucker. Of course Miss 
Tucker is very wide-awake, and Glorinda is intelligent. 
The companionship isn’t entirely a disadvantage.” 

“ That’s sheer humbug, Susan. You’re merely saying 
that to shield yourself. It won’t do, Susan. It won’t 
do. The girl has got to be properly taken in hand. 
Miss Tucker isn’t normal. She’ll save her from one 
danger only to push her into another.” 

He looked into Miss Lancaster’s sweet but helpless 
countenance. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


94 

“ I admit/' he said, more gently, " that you are the 
wrong person for the job. It's not fair to expect it of 
you." 

Miss Lancaster's hands twitched nervously. In her 
eyes there was a threat of tears. The General 
proceeded. 

“ Thank God, Miss Tucker can’t stay here for ever. 
Personally I'm prepared to make myself as disagreeable 
to her as possible. But you must back me up, Susan. 
What we have to do, first is to sanction this engagement, 
and throw Lestrange and Glorinda together as much as 
possible. Also, you must arrange in advance for 
Glorinda's spare time to be spent with you or me. And 
you must get hold of another girl for her. One has to 
plan out these things, you know. The only way to keep 
out the other fellow is to be on the spot first oneself. 
I'll go straight away and warn young Lestrange against 
Miss Tucker. Then I'll send him to you. In the 
meantime you can see Glorinda." 

Miss Lancaster folded her hands in her lap. "Yes. 
I'll be glad to do that now." And she gave a sigh of 
relief, as if she had suddenly been eased of a burden that 
was too great for her. 


CHAPTER XII 

Rupert Lest range, after the conclusion of an interview 
with General Bellamy, had betaken himself for purposes 
of meditation to the furthest corner of the olive garden, 
and there he continued to reflect over the situation, in so 
far as a mind filled to overflowing with happiness would 
permit him to do so. 

He recalled with amusement some of the General’s 
injunctions. 

“ What you want in an affair of this kind, my boy,” 
the General had urged, “ is infinite tact, infinite tact.” 

Tact was seemingly a quality on the possession of 
which General Bellamy prided himself, and this was 
curious, considering that tactfulness was the one attribute 
which an unbiassed observer would have been disin¬ 
clined to grant him. Good will, certainly, but tact, 
never. Nor did it seem to Rupert that tact was at all 
the quality that was specially necessary as between him 
and Glorinda. Tact indeed I Why should he need tact, 
when he was conscious of a glowing love which would 
burn up any petty misunderstanding as a hot fire anni¬ 
hilates a straw. Rupert would have greatly liked to 
tell this bristly old gentleman that much as he appre¬ 
ciated his friendliness he did not want his advice. But 
the shadow of military discipline embarrasses a young 
man, and all that he permitted himself to say was : 

“ Certainly, sir, I’m sure you are right.” 

The General nodded his head sagely, and continued. 

“ I assume, my dear boy, that you are a man of the 
world.” 

Rupert, by nature sensitive beyond the ordinary, had 
a curious feeling of resentment at the assumption that 
he was a man of the world. A few days previously he 
would have accepted the characterisation philosophi¬ 
cally, and would even have deemed it a compliment, 
whereas now he felt disposed to challenge the General, 
95 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


96 

and ask him what precisely he meant by the expression. 
In his relation to Glorinda he felt that another side to 
that question had now revealed itself. Glorinda’s 
resplendent innocence had had the effect of making the 
status of “ man of the world ” seem somehow of dubious 
value. Some women, he knew, professed to prefer a 
man of the world, and were willing to accept the tacit 
convention that the previous doings of a man of the world 
were not matters as to which a prudent woman would 
display too much curiosity. Glorinda was not, however, 
in any sense of the term, a prudent woman. Already 
he knew her well enough to be able to conceive how 
strange and possibly shattering an effect it might have 
on her, if she were too abruptly enlightened on all the 
implications of the expression. 

" Yes, my boy/’ the General had remarked in his 
most paternal manner. “ You’ll have to break her 
in gently. She has a lot to learn.” 

Really, Rupert reflected, for a thoroughly kind-hearted 
and well-meaning person, this old man, this preacher of 
tact to others, has a peculiar aptitude for treading on 
people's corns. However, subalterns must not argue 
with general officers. Rupert succeeded in maintaining 
the characteristic calm of his profession and up-bringing. 

" I must warn you of one thing,” the General proceeded 
with irrepressible fatherliness. “ That young woman 
Tucker has a bad influence on Miss Swift.” 

Rupert's resentment came very near exploding. He 
declined in his own mind to admit that any one had ever 
had a bad influence over his Glorinda 1 . Glorinda might 
be ignorant, but she was none the less perfect, as far as 
untried innocence could be perfect. Then he remem¬ 
bered that the Marchese, who was a subtle person and 
quite unlike General Bellamy, had also warned him 
against Miss Tucker. Apparently there was something 
in that. Personally he had a sort of conviction, which 
was so much a part of his social atmosphere that he was 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


97 

unaware of. that people like Miss Tucker might simply 
be ignored. Still, the Marchese had social atmosphere 
too, and the Marchese in his mystical medieval way 
had also discerned an evil genius in Miss Tucker. 

At one stage of their interview the General had play¬ 
fully shaken his fist at him and called him a young rascal. 
Still, the sum total of the General's message from Miss 
Lancaster was to sanction his engagement to Glorinda. 
Having discharged his duty, the General had forthwith 
gone away. Rupert was waiting merely for so long a 
time as would be necessary to enable Miss Lancaster to 
make a similar intimation to her niece, and the con¬ 
sciousness of this transfused the passing moments with 
an intoxicating splendour. What mattered Miss Tucker 
with her strenuousness and her theories ? He was in a 
new world. During the period of their engagement, 
he trusted that he would recover completely from his 
wound. Then he would be in a position to take his 
place in the mercantile branch of his family, that branch 
which had always continued solidly making money in 
the city, while his own immediate relations had adhered 
loyally to the less remunerative task of serving the King. 
Money-making would be his business now. How odd it 
would seem, after these generations in the army and 
navy, where money was merely a convenience, a thing 
which it was uncomfortable not to have. The making 
of money ! He had always in his heart rather despised 
the money-makers, and had laughed at regiments that 
had filled their messes with the sons of successful trades¬ 
men. But they were jolly useful fellows, the money¬ 
makers, he thought, when it came to a pinch. They 
seemed to count for more than anybody in these days, 
and now he was going to be one of them. 

He heard the footsteps of someone running along the 
path towards him, and his heart leaped as he recognised 
them for Glorinda's. All thoughts of money-making 
vanished away as he turned to meet her. 


98 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

Glorinda ran up to within a few steps of him and then 
stopped suddenly and held up her hands as though to 
caution him. 

“ You mustn’t run/’ she said, “ you must be very 
careful.” She came up to him with her hands stretched 
out. " Rupert darling, I’m in charge of you now.” 

Rupert smiled. 

“ Are you really ? ” he said. “ I thought I was to be 
in charge of you.” 

Save that the two looked at each other very tenderly, 
there was a complete absence of demonstrativeness in 
their gestures and demeanour. Each was seemingly 
withheld by a deep sense of the necessity of exercising 
the utmost care in relation to the other. Glorinda 
regarded Rupert as a mother would regard a child. He 
was to be to her the object of her extremest solicitude, 
until he should have regained his normal state of health. 
Rupert’s tenderness towards Glorinda was rather an 
affair of the spirit. Her purity and innocence were to 
him as the bloom on a butterfly’s wing. His lightest 
touch might inflict an irreparable injury. 

As they stood holding each other's hands, Glorinda 
looked up into his face. 

" You’re just a little taller than I am,” she said. 

“ That is as it ought to be.” 

“ I suppose—” she stopped and laughed merrily. 

" What is it ? ” he asked. 

“ I suppose we ought to kiss each other.” 

He joined happily in her laughter. 

" You darling ! Of course we ought. But I was 
afraid.” 

” So was I.” 

" What were you afraid of ? ” 

" We have done it before, but a kiss is always a new 
thing,” she said, and turned up her face to be kissed, 
and he kissed her. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 99 

“ You see/’ she said very seriously, “ you ought to be 
very careful of yourself and I have to help you.” 

“ I'm not so fragile as all that.” 

" Oh yes you are. Well now,” she went on, with the 
same profound seriousness, “ we ought to put our arms 
round each other, oughtn't we ? I want to put my arms 
round you, but I’m afraid of hurting you. Suppose I 
do it this way ? ” 

She put her right arm round his shoulders, and con¬ 
tinued to hold one of his hands. 

“ Will that do ? ” she asked. 

“ Beautifully.” 

" I think it’s very nice. But what are you going to do 
with your arms ? Tell me where you are wounded 
exactly.” 

He hesitated. 

" Well perhaps—” 

“ Oh, but you must tell me exactly. That’s part of 
the bargain.” 

“ Well,” he said reluctantly. " It reaches from here,” 
he indicated a point on the lower ribs of his right side, 
“ to here,” and he indicated another point about six 
inches away towards the centre of the body. 

“ You must show it to me afterwards,” she said. 
“ Now I want to see if you can put your arms round me 
without hurting yourself. Put your right arm so. Is 
that all right ? And now your left. How is that ? ” 

“ Simply perfect.” 

" You must be very gentle. For your own sake, I 
mean. I am ever so much stronger than you.” 

He looked into her beautiful eyes, which in that light 
were a deep amber. 

Of her love there could be no doubt. The General’s 
expression “ man of the world ” recurred to him with 
distaste. In places where men of the world congregated 
he was aware that the idea of love suffered in quality. 
Their notions of women contrived to be cynical, and at 



100 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


the same time a little simian. Even before he met 
Giorinda he had felt that. Was it a fact, as he h ?.' 3 read 
somewhere, that there was an ineradicable element of 
coarseness in the masculine idea of iove, and .hat this 
element was as a rule absent from a woman's conception 
of the same passion ? What was the fundamental idea 
of all love, of all the different sorts of love ? the maternal, 
the sisterly, the love of man for man, of woman for 
woman, of Giorinda for him ? Was there a universal 
idea common to all these varieties, and if so what was it ? 
Some of the great French novelists, nothing if not 
logical, had reasoned out love to its foundations, and 
had discovered sex instinct, direct or indirect, at the 
root of all. That seemed somehow to be insulting the 
passion. The nobler a passion becomes, the easier it is 
to insult it by ascribing an animal origin to it. The love 
of God, the love of a mother, the love of Giorinda, in all 
these there was a common element, and it was not sex, 
whatever else it was. Here at least was Giorinda, stately 
and beautiful, wholly surrendering herself to her love 
of him, and yet not derogating by the breadth of a line 
from her superb natural dignity ; as far removed as the 
North Pole is from the South from any faintest hint of 
anything incompatible with perfect purity. 

" I had such a long talk with Aunt Susan," she said. 

" So had I with the General." 

“ What did the General say ? " 

Rupert paused, seeking for a tactful form of speech. 

“ What he said was, I suppose, pretty much what 
guardians usually say when they make over their wards 
to other people. He pointed out that you were—well— 
perhaps a little inexperienced." 

“ Aunt Susan said that too." 

“ He said that you had recently picked up some views 

which might appear unusual, but that I was to-” 

he hesitated, “ well, in fact, go slow and give you time. 
Do you mind my saying this ? " 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT ioi 

“ Not a bit. It’s exactly the same as Aunt Susan 
said. Go on.’' 

“ Also he said that your—h’m—ignorance—” 

“ Oh the old wretch ! Ignorance indeed ! ” 

" Gave you a special claim—ah—was a special reason 
for—well—going a bit slow.” 

“ Now Rupert, if you had said that to me a month 
ago, I might have had good reason for agreeing with 
you. But it’s different now. I'm not ignorant any 
longer. You can't imagine how much I’ve learnt from 
Marcella in the last fortnight. I know far more than 
Aunt Susan does now. I know practically everything. 
Of course, I’ll always do what Aunt Susan wishes, 
because I love her, and she's been a perfect angel to me. 
But it's no use my pretending that I always agree with 
her. I can’t help seeing that some of her ideas are old- 
fashioned and what you would call ignorant.” 

Rupert looked dubious, and Glorinda, seeing this, 
went on. 

" I’ll give you an instance. Aunt Susan has just 
given me a scolding for something I did in London the 
other day.” 

She then recounted to Rupert the bathing incident. 

“You see,” she ended, perceiving that Rupert still 
remained unconvinced, “ you see they were all artists.” 

“ Some artists are just as big scallywags as anybody 
else. You can’t trust a man just because he’s an 
artist.” 

" But what did it really matter whether they were 
scallywags or not ? ” 

" Didn't Miss Lancaster explain that to you ? ” 

“ Yes, but I didn’t agree with her. However, I'm 
going to do as she tells me. Somehow or other she 
seemed to be quite hurt about it.” 

Rupert smiled uneasily. She laughed gaily at his 
obvious discomfort and said, 


102 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

“ Besides, I wasn't really naked. I had my hair 
down. Look." 

She drew out a few hairpins and shook her hair loose, 
and it uncoiled itself into a great cascade of ruddy gold. 
Rupert, unable to utter a word, stretched out his hand, 
and fingered timidly a shining strand. He looked at it 
and then into the laughing eyes of the girl, and then again 
he fingered a silky tress. Her innocence and ardour 
had bewitched him entirely. Surely she was as Eve 
was when God created her in the Garden of Eden. 

" It is nice, isn't it ? Perhaps," she laughed, " letting 
my hair down before you is one of the things Aunt 
Susan would object to. Now I must go away and put 
it up properly. You can come with me. Lean on me." 

TTiey climbed slowly the ascent between the olive 
trees. She made him lean on her more heavily. 

" How splendid it will be when you are strong again. 
I hate walking up a hill. When I'm out in the country 
by myself I love to run up a grassy hill. I run and run 
until I am out of breath, and then I throw myself on the 
grass. It is a hundred times better than playing games." 

Glorinda chattered gaily, but Rupert was silent. His 
heart was filled with the tenderest solicitude for this 
maiden, the treasure of the world, who had been placed 
in his hands. May God do so unto me and more also, 
he thought, if any evil befall her that I can prevent. 


CHAPTER XIII 


“ You are giving quite a party, Susan." 

“ Just ourselves." 

“ Who are ourselves, please ? ” 

" Glorinda, Captain Lestrange—" 

“ Rupert, you mean." 

“ Of course, Rupert now. Also Miss Tucker, who 
comes back from Pisa to-day." 

" You have to have me and Miss Tucker to keep each 
other in order ? " 

Miss Lancaster laughed. 

“ You're much more likely to raise a riot between you. 
Then there's the Marchese." 

“ Capital, I like that fellow. He’s so finished. In 
the continental way, you understand. Miss Tucker 
can’t have heard the news yet." 

“ No, I don’t think she has had a chance." 

" Good, let us watch her and see how she takes it. 
Nasty jar for her, Susan." 

Miss Lancaster's face showed reluctance. 

" I suppose she is my guest, Jacky, in a sort of way. 
Perhaps I can't quite watch her." 

“ Well, perhaps not. But even if you don't watch her 
you'll see far more than I shall. Trust a woman. Here 
comes the Marchese. What an air the little man has. 

He comes along the terrace as if he were-" 

“ At the Court of Lorenzo the Magnificent." 

The Marchese greeted them and took his place. The 
General raised his bushy eyebrows to ask a question of 
Miss Lancaster, and she nodded slightly and turned to the 
Marchese. 

“ My niece is engaged to Captain Lestrange." 

The Marchese accepted the news with a conventional 
smile and a slight bow. He offered no comment. 
General Bellamy and Miss Lancaster looked at him. 
103 


io4 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


His eyes were cast down. He was apparently medi¬ 
tating. Then, gravely, he announced. 

" In my opinion that is an auspicious beginning.” 

The other two exchanged glances of amusement. 

" What do you mean by an auspicious beginning ? ” 

The Marchese paused a little longer before replying. 
Still with great gravity, and with a gesture of the hands, 

“ Your niece has supreme beauty.” 

“ Is that such a danger ? ” Miss Lancaster asked. 
" Marchese, you frighten me.” 

There was another expressive gesture with his hands. 
" At least,'' he said, 4 ‘ she begins well. Captain Lestrange 
is one of your English gentlemen. He is distinguished 
without knowing it.” 

“ Quite so,” protested the General. “ But what about 
this danger ? ” 

The Marchese repeated. 

" She is supremely beautiful. She has captured me. 
She will capture everybody.” 

“ But she has brains, too, and character,” the General 
insisted. " I knew her father. She is the same as her 
father, who was a man of genius and character if there 
ever was one.” 

" Do you really think that Glorinda is so remarkable, 
Jacky ? ” 

“ I'm positive of it. You’ve never given her a chance 
of showing what she is.” 

“ I know she is very intelligent.” 

" Intelligent ! ” The General exploded scornfully. 
" Intelligence is a thing for board-school boys.” 

The Marchese smilingly concurred in General Bellamy’s 
view. 

“ I agree with the General. It is not intelligence which 
makes things to arrive. Intelligence is machinery.” 

The General acquiesced cordially. 

" The biggest fools I’ve ever met were your so-called 
intelligent men.” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 105 

' Intelligence is a useful thing with which to read the 
newspapers. But not to cause things to arrive. There 
is something more required than that, and I agree with 
General Bellamy in thinking that Miss Swift has it ! " 

“ But surely people oughtn't to be stupid," Miss 
Lancaster protested. 

" Stupid ? Oh, no. One must not be stupid. But 
intelligent people can be very stupid." He dropped his 
voice. " Here comes one very intelligent." 

Marcella came towards them. The Marchese looked 
at the General and shrugged his shoulders ever so 
slightly. 

General Bellamy shouted a noisy greeting to Miss 
Tucker. 

“ Well, Miss Tucker, and how many museums did you 
do at Pisa ? " 

Marcella fixed him with a glance of barely concealed 
hostility. 

" No museums at all, thank you. But I had an 
interesting talk with a friend about the management of 
the war on various fronts." 

" H'm." The General subsided with a grunt. Mis¬ 
management on various fronts was, on the whole, his 
favourite topic of conversation. But he had no desire 
to discuss it except in military circles. Besides that, 
he was aware that he was at a disadvantage. Tete a tete 
with Miss Tucker he could, and did, by mutual consent, 
fight with the gloves off. But in the constraining 
presence of Miss Lancaster and the Marchese he was 
helpless. And Miss Tucker knew this as well as he 
did. No. Decidedly it was useless t>. argue with Miss 
Tucker in the present company. B“* he could wait. 
Young women who professed to have a liking for the 
plain truth were liable to get more of it than they 
bargained for. 

“ H’m." He grunted again, and he scowled at 
Marcella, who had no difficulty in interpreting his 


io6 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

frown as meaning, “ Wait till I get you alone, my good 
young woman." She smiled, but knowing the hardness 
of the General’s fists she quailed a little inwardly. 

The Marchese's deep eyes travelled from one to the 
other with complete understanding of the situation. 
He had, however, no impulse towards intervention. He 
had a lighter and finer touch than the General, and in his 
day he had reckoned himself among the effective com¬ 
batants. Also, he sincerely believed Miss Tucker 
to be dangerous. Not in petty matters of controversy ; 
these were of no account; but in an affair of greater 
moment. It would be wiser for him, he thought, to 
hold his peace for the present, so that when real troubles 
arose later on, as he was convinced they would, he might 
use his power the more effectively. 

“ Was your friend English or Italian ? ” he asked. 

“ German,” replied Marcella. And she looked round 
the company with obvious amusement. 

Miss Lancaster was the first to speak. Her voice 
betrayed strain. 

“ Please all of you, will you say nothing about the 
war. If you do, I shan’t sleep to-night.” 

She turned to Marcella. 

“ Have you seen Glorinda since you came back ? ” 

" No. By the way, I specially want Glorinda to 
come down with me to-morrow morning and meet some 
friends of mine. Can she come ? ” 

Marcella expected to be asked who the friends were. 
Instead, Miss Lancaster said, a little primly. 

" You must ask my niece.” 

Marcella raised her eyebrows. This was promotion, 
surely, for Glorinda. Was Glorinda to make her own 
plans for herself in the future ? If so, so much the better. 
It would mean a free hand for Marcella. But how had 
this new state of affairs come about ? Had Glorinda 
asserted herself, as Marcella had been incessantly 
urging her to do ? Marcella, who had been the first to 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


ic7 

discover Glorinda's fearlessness, was confident that the 
aunt would be swept away as soon as Glorinda had a 
motive strong enough to make her use effectively her 
latent strength of character. 

“ I shall ask Glorinda, then,” she said. 

Nevertheless she was puzzled. The faces of these 
three old people wore an expression of quiet satisfaction. 
The Marchese’s face, especially, annoyed her. With 
his placid eyes and waxed moustaches, he had, she 
thought, an irritating air of imperturbability. In fact 
all three of them were greatly in want of the experience 
which some of her friends in London would have des¬ 
cribed as a jolt. Her busy mind set itself to watching 
for an occasion of administering a shock. 

" I saw a parade of Black Shirts in the town this 
morning,” she remarked. 

" Ah ! Fascisti. Fine young fellows,” said the 
General. “ Absurdly young, of course. But the in¬ 
competence of the Government fully justifies their 
existence. A little more discipline and they would be 
all right. Don't you think so, Marchese ? ” 

" I think they have saved my country once. As 
regards the future-” 

Marcella interrupted rudely. 

“ I thought they looked supremely ridiculous.” 

Miss Lancaster saw the intention to annoy. She 
remarked quietly : 

“ I met three or four of them at tea yesterday. They 
were charming young men, of the best families.” 

" Then of course they can't do wrong,” said Marcella. 
Looking round the company she perceived with satis¬ 
faction that she had succeeded in driving away from 
their faces the air of quiet complacency which nad 
annoyed her. All three had seemingly given up any 
idea of replying to her. She had silenced their guns. 
Miss Lancaster was thinking to herself that this young 
woman must have been spending her time in the society 



io8 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

of persons who in the modern fashion of many underbred 
young people think it funny to be rude. What Miss 
Tucker would now enjoy most of anything would be some 
rude rejoinders. From this, however, as Miss Lancaster 
knew, Miss Tucker was safe in the present company. 
The General’s small grey eyes stared fiercely out through 
his absurd bushes of eyebrows, and conveyed to Marcella 
the same threatening intimation as before. Marcella 
experienced a curious thrill, half fear and half pleasure. 
This old monster might maul and bruise her when he got 
her alone. But she was determined to put up a good 
fight when the occasion arose. 

Glorinda and Rupert appeared at the far end of the 
terrace ; and towards them, from each of the four people 
seated at the tea-table, were shot discreet and fleeting 
glances. They approached slowly, pausing every few 
paces, while Glorinda with expressive gestures, pointed 
out with enthusiasm to her less demonstrative companion 
some dome or tower or distant monastery. She looked 
up suddenly into the blue vault of heaven, stretched 
out her arms as though to embrace it, and turned, glow¬ 
ing and happy, to Rupert. Most engagingly unself¬ 
conscious, her aunt reflected. Lucky young rascal, 
thought the General, looking at Rupert. 

Each of the three elderly folk at the tea table had 
arrived after mature reflection at an independent and 
approving verdict. Miss Lancaster, who was daily 
more amazed at her niece’s startling growth in individu¬ 
ality and self-expression, had bowed gladly to the 
inevitable. If she must lose her Glorinda, and that 
quickly, as she had now realised, Rupert’s arrival on the 
scene had been merely providential. If Glorinda had 
conceived a real love for a man of Rupert’s type, she 
would be free for evermore from all danger of falling a 
victim to the wiles of good-looking detrimentals. She 
considered Rupert and summed up his advantages He 
comely far beyond the average, he was of good 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 109 

family, and his prospects were bright. He was a hero 
of the war. But above all he had that special variety of 
manners which satisfied most completely Miss Lan¬ 
caster’s own English notion of manners, as being some¬ 
thing ingrained, unobtrusive, habitual, and able without 
derogation or disturbance to withstand the shock of 
ill-breeding in others. Undoubtedly, as compared with 
Glorinda, he seemed for the moment a little self- 
conscious. But Miss Lancaster smiled to herself when 
she saw that, and condoned it. 

The General, too, was thinking of Rupert, rather than 
of Glorinda. Direct and simple-minded, he had classi¬ 
fied Glorinda once for all as a reincarnation, mutatis 
mutandis , of his dear friend Dominic Swift. She was 
extraordinarily beautiful and would go her own way. 
But how about young Lestrange ? Him, too, the General 
had classified after putting him through various tests. 
He had talked to him about the war, about promotion, 
about his wound and his prospects, and had measured 
the youth grimly by the severest standards known to 
him. Armed with the curious flair which an old soldier 
acquires for discovering inadequacy, incompleteness, the 
weak point, he had decided that Rupert did not fall 
short of the most rigid standards. And furthermore he 
caught a hint of the truth that there was something to 
spare in him, something not easily definable, a reserve 
of some sedulously cloaked quality, which the General 
respected but was not quite able to analyse. So he 
merely classed him as a good soldier, and invested him 
implicitly with all the virtues which he believed to be 
inherent in that characterisation. 

The Marchese and Marcella on the other hand had their 
thoughts entirely on Glorinda. The Marchese, casting 
an occasional glance at Glorinda as she approached, 
surrendered himself to an aesthetic appreciation of the 
situation. This little drama on the terrace brought to 
his mind the glamour of the Renaissance. The evening 


IIO THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

sun, sinking beyond the Carrara heights, was filling the 
air with the matchless tints of a Florentine sunset. The 
most beautiful and adorable girl in the world was ap¬ 
proaching, accompanied by a young man in whom the 
Marchese could easily discover, under the drab disguise 
of modernity, the essential romance that lay in youth 
and Italy and Shakespeare. If it were not, he reflected 
angrily, for this little devil here, this English Miss, this 
possessed woman ! He frowned darkly, and looked at 
Marcella, and twisted his moustaches. 

Marcella, too, one may be sure, had her separate view 
of things. She cast a glance of devouring adoration at 
Glorinda, resplendent in the radiance of the evening sun 
of Florence. Glorinda had risen above the fondest 
anticipations of her instructress. Marcella had found 
her a fallow and fertile field for ideas. Glorinda had 
espoused the cause of Woman and Truth with whole¬ 
hearted enthusiasm. In her, Marcella had recognised 
physical energy without limit, mental vigour, the 
masterful temperament; rashness, too, of course, and 
inevitable ignorance and inexperience: But what 
independence of thought, what sublime unconscious 
courage, what fervour for the little of the truth that she 
yet knew ! And beside her incomparable Glorinda, 
walked stiffly a composed, commonplace young man, a 
model of correctness, a stereotyped image, of whom one 
could find one hundred duplicates in Piccadilly on any 
fine morning in June. Pah ! A cipher, a nonentity, a 
Miss Lancaster in trousers. 

“ Quite an ideal spot/’ Miss Lancaster remarked, as 
the party arranged itself at the tea table. She turned 
to Rupert. 

" I gather that my niece has been taking you for a 
personally conducted tour.” 

" Without leaving the garden,” Rupert laughed, " I 
have climbed every church tower in Florence.” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


hi 


“ Wings are better than feet,” said Glorinda. Then 
she turned to Miss Lancaster. 

" I’ve really been very careful of him. I'm in charge 
of him now, you see.” 

“ Yes, darling, for the present, until he is better. Then 
it will be his turn.” 

Marcella, who was raising a cup of tea to her lips, felt 
a sudden loss of control. She set down the cup hastily. 
For a few seconds she dared not look up. Then she 
summoned her courage, and looked at the company one 
by one. Why was the General fixing her with those small 
grey eyes that peered through a jungle of eyebrow ? 
Was the old monster laughing ? Miss Lancaster's face 
was expressionless. The Marchese was watching her, 
but at once averted his dark eyes, and a faint smile 
fleeted over his features. Captain Lestrange ? There 
was nothing to note in his expression ; he sipped his 
tea and nibbled a cake. And Glorinda ? At last 
Marcella, with an effort of will, looked at Glorinda. 

Glorinda was saying laughingly to Rupert. 

" How nice and restful it must be for you not to have 
to do any waiting.” 

" Oh but I can,” protested Rupert, making a movement 
to rise. Glorinda laid her hand on his arm. 

"Not one step, my dear boy. Y ou belong to me now. ” 

Marcella clutched the edge of the table with both hands. 
Her brain reeled. General Bellamy and the Marchese 
and Miss Lancaster were all three watching her intently. 
She felt that she dared not show any signs of discom¬ 
fiture. But her breath came short, and she knew that 
she had flushed and then turned pale. Miss Lan¬ 
caster’s quiet voice was heard. 

" Are you not feeling well, my dear ? ” 

" No. Yes. I’m all right. I think I’ll just-” 

She rose from her chair and turned away, and made 
blindly for the house. 


CHAPTER XIV 


Glorinda, occupied with Rupert, had not at once 
perceived that Marcella was leaving them. When she 
noticed it, she made a movement to follow. 

“ Why, Marcella," she cried. 

" You needn't trouble, darling," said her aunt. " I 
think Miss Tucker has forgotten something." 

“ She has gone away to look for her manners," the 
General reflected inwardly. 

Glorinda shot a glance at her aunt. It was a new 
variety of glance, a variety to which Miss Lancaster 
had not hitherto been accustomed. It was the glance 
of a person who had not the remotest intention of 
allowing any dust to be thrown in her eyes. 

“ Marcella, what is it ? " she called out. 

Marcella checked herself and turned to answer. 

“ It's all right. I'll be back in a minute." 

Glorinda, her eyes fixed on Marcella, seemed to be 
estimating the position. Then she nodded, and Marcella 
turned away and went towards the house. 

“ I've seen her like this before," Glorinda said. “ She 
has to be left alone for a little." 

But her quick intelligence did not leave her long in 
doubt as to the true cause of her friend's agitation. 

After the Marchese had taken his leave, Glorinda rose 
to her feet and said. 

“ Now I’m going to Marcella." 

Miss Lancaster's lips were framing the words, which 
would grant her niece permission to go, when it suddenly 
struck her that Glorinda had not asked for permission. 
She had merely announced an intention. This was 
another new thing. Miss Lancaster silently occupied 
herself with the task of adjusting her standards. Glor¬ 
inda went away, and Rupert accompanied her as far as 
the house. 


112 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 113 

The General and Miss Lancaster exchanged significant 
glances. 

“ What did I tell you ? " asked the General. 

“ Well, Jacky, what did you tell me?” Miss Lan¬ 
caster asked, with a trace of petulance. 

“ I told you that Glorinda was a reincarnation. She 
is our old Dominic. Do you remember Dorn's way of 
saying he was going to do a thing ? There was an 
appalling directness about it. One felt that any one 
who got in the way was going to get hurt." 

Miss Lancaster seemed reluctant to accept this view, 
implying as it did a complete surrender of her authority. 
Her duty towards her niece's ignorance forbade any such 
immediate abdication. She spoke with hesitation. 

“ It is so sudden. Has it come to that already ? " 

“ As far as controlling your niece is concerned, my 
dear Susan, you may hand in your resignation at once." 

Miss Lancaster's mind continued to wander for a little 
in a vague mist of regrets and uncertainty. At last she 
sighed “ She's a dear girl. After all, I’d much rather 
have things on a new basis. I prefer love to discipline, 
and I can always depend on Glorinda’s love." 

So saying she resigned herself complacently to her 
loss of power. 

" What will she say to Miss Tucker ? " she asked. 

“ I haven’t the remotest idea," said the General. 
“ All I know is that it will be something totally different 
from anything you or I would say." 

'* I do hope there won't be any unpleasantness. Miss 
Tucker is always so terribly in earnest." 

“ I was rather hoping there would be unpleasantness. 
But there won't be. You have only to think of her 
father. Dominic had a big heart and so has his daughter. 
Would you ever have dreamed of suggesting to Dom what 
he ought to do or say ? " 

Miss Lancaster sighed again. 

“ I don’t know what the world is coming to." 


114 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

The General smiled a little forlornly. He too, in his 
own way, had arrived at the consciousness of being 
superfluous. 

“ Who does know, my dear ? Come for a little stroll 
with me, and we'll abuse everything and everybody." 

Glorinda made her way to the tower which stood at 
the south west comer of the Villa Stellini. She ascended 
the flights of bare stone steps leading to the third story. 

“ How characteristic of Marcella," she reflected, “ to 
refuse to occupy an ordinary room, and to come up here 
into a tower like Galileo." 

Chagrined and desperate, Marcella had fled to conceal 
herself in her room in the tower. The first thing that 
she noticed was her travelling trunk. 

“ I pack to-night and leave to-morrow," she exclaimed 
passionately, and stamped her foot. Then she sat down 
at the untidy table. She covered her face with her 
hands. Presently she was infuriated to feel the tears 
trickling through her fingers. 

“ I’ve lost her, I've lost her," she said. And then 
vehemently, “ She wasn't worth it." 

But of this petulance she repented quickly. Glorinda 
was well worthy of all the admiration she had laid at her 
feet, well worth any hopes she had founded on her 
beauty and her character. As the violence of her first 
frenzy abated, her active restless brain began to assert 
its mastery. One thing at least she realized immediately, 
she must prepare for an encounter with Glorinda. She 
knew Glorinda well enough to be aware that when there 
was anything to be done, Glorinda always marched 
straight for it. This trait had amused Marcella in 
London, and it amused her ruefully still to note how 
instinctively Glorinda challenged the personal shock 
which most people feared. If it seemed to be true, as an 
outcome of one of their discussions, that the Foreign 
Secretary was responsible for a certain state of affairs, 
Glorinda could never see any good reason why she should 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 115 

not go at once and speak to the Foreign Secretary 
about it. 

“ I have a right to," she would say. “ I have as good 
a status as anybody else. Besides, I believe I could 
convince him that he is wrong." And she had to be 
persuaded to wait a little longer, although her hearers 
would be greatly tempted to think within themselves 
that really perhaps the girl was right, and that a straight 
talk between her and the Foreign Secretary might 
effect more than they, with their timidity and their 
convictions, were ever likely to accomplish. 

Marcella, then, set herself to prepare for the coming 
interview with Glorinda. 

Within three short weeks of their first meeting, 
Glorinda, her pupil and her idol, was engaged to be 
married. And down with a clatter had collapsed 
Marcella’s house of cards. Now to consider. Glorinda 
was engaged to Captain Lestrange. Marcella's views on 
engagements were based on the variety of social life 
with which she was most familiar. It could not be said 
that, in Marcella’s social sphere, engagements were 
deemed to be contracts of any peculiar inviolability. 
The old-fashioned belief in their permanence and 
sanctity had faded away. An engagement had become 
a period of probation, during which a quickly formed 
sexual attachment was slowly but ruthlessly subjected 
to practical considerations relating to the cost of house¬ 
keeping. And as far as Marcella’s personal knowledge 
of engaged people went, the act of rupture was frequent 
enough. Those who were good-looking among Marcella’s 
friends were in the habit of contracting engagements, 
and dissolving them, with astonishing frequency, 
changing, as Marcella thought, one foci for another, 
with little violence to their heart strings. One thing 
at least was almost axiomatic ; no girl ever married the 
man to whom she was first engaged. 

As regards Captain Lestrange, however, Marcella had 


n6 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

to admit the existence of a differentiating quality. 
Undistinguished as she considered him in attainments 
and character, she could iot deny him the possession of 
a certain serious fixity of purpose. He was too con¬ 
ventional, too obstinate, and from her point of view, 
too stupid for the easy touch-and-go of the modern 
engagement. Fortunately it lay as a rule with the woman 
to break off an engagement. She must look to Glorinda. 

In that direction, there was hope in two aspects of the 
case. In the first place, Glorinda was immeasurably 
superior to Captain Lestrange in all the vital qualities. 
And Glorinda, thanks to Marcella, was discovering herself 
rapidly. It could hardly be very long before she would, 
with perhaps a little judicious assistance now and then, 
arrive at a knowledge of Captain Lestrange’s comparative 
inferiority. And in the second place, there were other 
men in the world. Captain Lestrange might be unique 
in Florence, or in an English village, but he would be far 
from unique in London. It was impossible to conceive 
that Glorinda would ever be satisfied again with a 
country life. In reviewing the history of her brief 
connection with Glorinda, Marcella now regretted the 
selfishness which had led her to keep her new discovery 
so much to herself. It was obvious to her now that it 
was above all things necessary to beget in the mind of 
Glorinda the conviction that she had a world of men at 
her feet. Their fortnight in London would have sufficed 
for that, had not Marcella devoted herself so furiously 
to the inculcation of ideas. 

There was a knock at the door. Marcella must now 
face her interview with Glorinda. But what to say, 
what plan to follow ? Should she admit Glorinda now, 
or give herself further time for reflection ? She could 
never persuade Glorinda that she liked the engagement, 
but she could at any rate behave as if she had contrived 
after a struggle to reconcile herself to the idea. And 
then, after that, delay was everything. 

Another knock at the door. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 1I7 

“ I want to be alone,” Marcella cried, in nervous alarm. 

Glorinda's voice, sweet, but quite uncompromising, 
came back : 

“ I want to see you, Marcella. Open the door.” 
After a pause, again Glorinda spoke; " Do open the 
door. I have heaps of things to say to you. Do please 
open the door at once.” 

Marcella, suddenly docile, unlocked the door. 

The tWo girls stood confronting each other, Glorinda 
smiling, Marcella unable to look her friend in the face. 
Glorinda, less fearful than Marcella of the direct en¬ 
counter, was the first to speak. 

" Well, I can see that you have guessed.” 

Marcella nodded. Standing silent there before her 
bigger and stronger friend, she had curiously the air of 
a shamefaced little girl, hovering between tears and 
mutiny. 

“ Come along,” said Glorinda, stretching out her arms. 
Marcella advanced shyly closer, and hid her face on 
Glorinda’s bosom. 

“You noticed it at once, didn’t you ? ” Glorinda 
went on. " I'm engaged to Captain Lestrange.” 

“ Yes, I saw that.” 

“ I would have told you before any one else, before 
Aunt Susan even, if I had had a chance.” 

" Would you, Glorinda, truly ? ” 

“ Yes, of course, after all that you have done for me.” 

“ I hated finding it out that way, in front of all these 
people. I could see that they were laughing at me and 
watching to see how I would take it.” 

Glorinda spoke indignantly. “ I promise you they 
shan’t dare to laugh at you again. Not one of them. 
Come, that’s all settled now, isn’t it ? Let us sit down 
and talk things over.” 

“ What is there to talk over now ? ” asked Marcella, 
woebegone. " It’s all finished. You’re engaged and 
you're going to be married. O Glorinda, you could have 
had anybody. Why were you in such a hurry ? ” 


1X8 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

“ I'm not in a hurry. We weren't either of us the 
least bit in a hurry. It just happened so. I don't see 
why you should be so distressed about it.” 

“ Why, don’t you see, Glorinda, it simply knocks 
everything on the head, all our beautiful plans. What 
can you do if you are married ? ” 

“ I can’t see why my marriage should make any 
difference.” 

Marcella pondered for a time and then shook her head 
despairingly. " There are heaps of things.” 

Glorinda looked at her keenly. 

“ Such as ? ” 

Marcella shrugged her shoulders. 

“ Why mention them ? ” 

Glorinda laughed. 

“ Now I know what you’re thinking of. It’s children.” 

" Well then, children.” 

“ Marcella, Marcella, what a short memory you have ! 
I used to think babies were sent by God. But I have a 
distinct recollection of your explaining to me that 
nobody need have babies who didn’t want them.” 

“ Would you want them ? ” 

“ I’ve such a lot to see and do. I never realized till 
I came here what an amazing and beautiful place the 
world is. I am bound to say I think children would be a 
horrid bore. Perhaps when I’m Qld, twenty-five or so, 
I could have one, or adopt one. But I’m not sure even 
then.” 

Marcella seemed reflective. 

“ But suppose your husband wanted them,” she 
suggested. 

“ Oh my dear, my dear ! Have you gone crazy ? 
Have you forgotten all our principles already ? I have 
the distinctest recollection of your convincing me that 
children were the wife’s business and not the husband’s. 
I remember your little lecture perfectly; the laws of 
primogeniture—” 

“ Yes, yes. And you agreed then.” 


the shameless innocent 


119 


‘ I agree still.” 

“ That’s one comfort at any rate.” 

Marcella meditated in silence for a little then she asked. 
“ Has Captain Lestrange any influential connections ? ” 

“ Plenty of them, I believe. Especially in the City.” 

" Will he be going into Parliament ? ” 

" I’m sure he would if I asked him. But he has to 
make a lot of money first. He’ll be busy for years.” 

“ What are his politics ? ” 

" He hasn’t bothered himself about politics. But his 
uncle Sir Robert is a shocking old Tory.” 

Marcella still envisaged Rupert as a cipher, a biddable 
person without much character, who would do as he 
was told. 

“ You still intend to go into the House yourself ? ” 

“ Of course I do. I can’t imagine Rupert having any 
objection to that.” 

“ O Glorinda, how splendid ! You could do anything, 
anything. And it was I who discovered you. What a 
mercy it was that we met in London, instead of your 
coming straight here.” 

“ I learnt a lot, didn’t I ? By the way, talking about 
our doings in London, I told Rupert about the swimming 
bath and the artists.” 

“ What did he say ? ” 

" He didn't like it a bit. He said artists were liable 
to be rotters just as much as anyone else. So I promised 
to be more careful.” 

“ He’s very correct, very good form.” 

“ Tremendously. But very sensible, too. And such 
a dear.” 

“I'm sure he must be,” Marcella agreed, in a tone of 
indifference. 

Glorinda looked at her quizzingly. “ Oh don't run 
away with the idea that Rupert is a duffer.” 

Marcella was silent. A well-trained and well-bred 
duffer was precisely her notion of what Captain Lestrange 
was. 


120 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


14 1 am sure he is anything but that/ 4 she said. But 
there was no conviction in her voice. And Glorinda 
again eyed her shrewdly. 

44 You must speak to him. 4 ’ 

44 Of course I will, if you like.” 

It was clear that the prospect of conversing with 
Captain Lestrange did not excite Marcella. 

Glorinda rose to go, and Marcella placed herself in 
front of her and put her hands on Glorinda’s shoulders, 
and looked up into her face with the old dog-like devotion. 

44 Glorinda ! ” 

44 Yes, Marcella. 44 

Marcella leaned forward and hid her face. 

44 1 thought I had lost you. I was dreadfully miser¬ 
able. But now I am so happy. 44 

And she wept. Glorinda regarded the top of Marcella's 
head with a good-humoured smile, and replied: 

44 1 must say you are taking it much easier than I 
expected. That is so sensible of you. You needn’t 
ever fuss over me. It’s no earthly use anyone ever 
worrying about me. Ta, ta ! 44 

She went away, and Marcella listened to the sound of 
her descending footsteps. When the echo of them had 
died away, Marcella wiped the tears from her face, 
seated herself at her little table, and reflected. Poor 
darling Glorinda ! so splendid, and so helpless. How 
little she guessed the inevitableness of the fate that 
awaited her. When she married, she would be swept 
away into a completely different atmosphere. Rupert’s 
uncle. Sir Robert, was a shocking old Tory, Glorinda 
had declared, and if one thing in the world was obvious 
it was that Captain Lestrange would develop/ or fossilize, 
intg a precisely similar type. And then Marcella and 
all her friends, ultra feminists and communists and 
believers in various Utopias, would drop clean out of 
Glorinda’s life, and in a short time would be as if they 
had never existed. That was a certainty. But was it ? 
Not if Marcella could help it. 


CHAPTER XV 

The General had gone out for a rubber of bridge. Miss 
Lancaster and Rupert, seated before a wood fire in the 
drawing-room of the Villa Stellini, were chatting com¬ 
fortably about matters of small importance. Already 
they had in each other the confidence which arises from 
the sharing of similar social standards, and therewith, 
to a certain extent, the same prejudices. Each had 
classified the other without difficulty. The primary 
characterisation, that which is effected with manners as 
the criterion, had been determined at the first meeting. 
Neither had to fear from the other, under whatsoever 
provocation, anything conspicuous or ill bred or in bad 
taste. The more vital classification, that which is 
determined by the deeper qualities, came with them 
chronologically later, and was approached more 
guardedly. If not actually a secondary classification, 
it came in point of time at least, second. And the 
secondary, the more positive process, had moved not 
less smoothly than the primary. Each was completely 
at ease with the other. Each could now yield to that 
comforting sense of congenial personality which, while 
it enhances the pleasure of conversation, lends to each 
speaker a luxurious confidence in the silences of the 
other. 

Beppina brought in the evening mail. It consisted of 
one letter for Rupert. He cast a glance at the hand¬ 
writing of the address. 

“It is from my uncle. It is rather important, I 
fancy, to me at least.” 

“ Pray read it.” 

Rupert ran through the letter once quickly, and then 
again more deliberately. It seemed to provide food for 
reflection. Miss Lancaster awaited the confidence 
which she knew was coming. At last Rupert announced. 

“ My uncle is taking me into the business.” 


121 


122 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


“ Sir Robert ? But that was to be expected/ 1 

Rupert smiled. 

" I wasn’t so sure of it myself. You don’t know my 
uncle.” 

Miss Lancaster looked an enquiry. 

“ Could you not count on your uncle ? ” her eyes 
asked, and Rupert rejoined. 

” He’s a splendid old fellow. He's like the Rock of 
Gibraltar. Once he has decided, you know exactly 
where you are with him.” 

“ You’re settled for life then.” 

" Absolutely. It is tremendous luck. I have other 
cousins, you know. In the City, getting into Burbage 
and Lestrange is like having a reversion to a peerage.” 

" And he has chosen you ! How perfectly splendid. 
Of course your war record-” 

“ My cousins all have good war records, as far as that 
goes.” 

He referred to the letter. 

“ He explains that the war, followed by the rapid 
demobilisation, has forced him in common with other 
business houses, to relax the customary practice, which 
is to insist on a period of probation, during which the 
duties of office boy and clerk are performed. Without 
such probation, he says, it is difficult to decide whether 
or not a young man possesses business faculty. He is 
rather amusing about that, for such a grim old fellow. 
Apparently he finds the rising generation a little puzzling. 
In his young days, he says, ‘it was considered good 
form for a business man to assume a certain stolidity 
or slowness. Everyone did that and it was taken at its 
proper value. But the affectation nowadays is to 
display a sort of flippant silliness instead, and to expect 
one to interpret that as a token of brains and what not.’ ” 

Miss Lancaster laughed. 

” How true that is. You can see that one of his 
nephews has been annoying him.” 



THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


123 

“ So much the better for me,” said Rupert. “ My 
uncle goes on to say that he considers some of my cousins 
to be cleverer than I. But he has come to the definite 
conclusion that I am the one who is least likely to make a 
fool of himself and the firm.” 

Miss Lancaster laughed gleefully. 

“ That’s great praise.” 

“ It is, from him. It’s a warning, too.” 

“ So you have a new career before you.” 

Rupert looked suddenly serious. Miss Lancaster 
watched his expression. It was grave, concentrated, 
resolute; she wished that his uncle could have been 
present to see it. He would have been convinced that 
the century-old traditions of the great house of Burbage 
and Lestrange were in no danger. 

“ The arrangement is,” Rupert pursued, “ that I 
spend one year in the London office, and then three to 
five years abroad. By abroad we mean Valparaiso or 
Sydney or San Francisco.” 

He pondered. Miss Lancaster guessed his thoughts, 
but asked him no questions. He was silent for a time 
and then broke out impulsively. 

“ We are not allowed to marry before thirty.” 

“ Is that a fixed rule ? ” 

" Absolutely.” 

Miss Lancaster mused. 

" As a member of the family ? ” she enquired. 

“ That makes no difference. One must either be 
thirty years old or have attained a certain position in the 
firm.” 

“ That gives a loop hole.” 

" I can’t oount on it.” 

" Your uncle ? ” 

" He won’t budge an inch. I’ll get my promotion 
when I’ve earned it, and not one moment sooner.” 

“ He is right, of course. But ...” 

“ There is no but with him.” 


124 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


" There is always a but.” 

With a quiet smile hovering on her lips, she scanned 
him, as the quick emotions surged across his face. 

“ It seems an impossibly long time to wait,” he 
protested. 

” Still, you’re accepting the conditions.” 

“ I have no alternative. It is my only chance.” 

“ After all, Glorinda is only eighteen. You must 
tell her at once. Where is she ? ” 

“ She’s at the top of the tower with Miss Tucker, 
admiring Florence by moonlight. I’m not allowed to 
climb up there yet.” 

“ Ah ! Miss Tucker has discovered that ! ” 

“ Miss Tucker will get just as much of Glorinda as I 
choose to give her. That is one thing that one learns in 
the army. If you don’t arrange things, they don’t 
happen. But I admit that it’s a shocking waste of 
moonlight.” 

“ From your point of view, certainly. Perhaps you 
can’t imagine how much two girls can enjoy the moon¬ 
light together. It isn’t really being wasted.” 

“ It isn’t the moonlight. It’s the moonshine that I 
object to.” 

“ Oh, Miss Tucker ? ” 

” Yes, don’t you think she’s pretty crazy ? I can 
understand her feelings towards Glorinda. But it 
rather defeats me when I see Glorinda so much taken 
up with her.” 

Miss Lancaster sighed regretfully. 

“ That’s my fault, I’m afraid. When Glorinda was 
left in London, she was plunged into a new world. 
She has rather lost her head, I think. I don't wonder, 
of course. I found it most bewildering myself. You 
see. Miss Tucker—I will not call her Marcella, though 
Glorinda wants me to—Miss Tucker took complete 
charge of her. Glorinda is extraordinarily susceptible 
to new ideas. She idealises everything, and she had 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 125 

never met anyone like Miss Tucker before. She thinks 
Miss Tucker is the most wonderful creature. She gives 
her credit for inventing all the new ideas herself. That’s 
always the way with young people, isn’t it ? It’s quite 
natural. So she has been swept off her feet. But she 
will recover herself. She’s a dear girl and full of 
character. Miss Tucker’s not a patch on Glorinda, 
really.” 

The door opened and Glorinda, Marcella and the 
Marchese entered the room. Glorinda caught the 
mention of her name. 

“ Talking about me ? ” she cried, laughing. “ Was 
it nice things ? Tell me. Rupert, I forbid you to get up. 
We have been at the top of the tower. The Marchese 
has been showing us Florence by moonlight. Oh the 
glory, the glory ! Auntie darling, will you explain to 
me why any one should take the trouble to invent 
heaven when we’ve got the earth ? ” 

She flung her arms out to embrace the world. The 
Marchese, enraptured, gazed at her. When had he had 
an evening so full of beauty ? His beloved city by 
moonlight, Glorinda by moonlight. And now Glorinda 
in the warm glow of the wood fire. He shut his eyes to 
see her image the more clearly. 

Glorinda cast a glance at Rupert. 

“ Rupert, what’s the matter ? You’re excited.” 

Rupert repelled the accusation. 

“ Not at all. But I’ve had news.” 

Glorinda clapped her hands joyously. 

“ Sir Robert has taken you into partnership.” 

" I’ll give him twenty years to think about that. In 
the meantime, I’ve got my footing.” 

“ How tremendously pleased he must be to have you! ” 

“ Rather ! I expect he’s standing on his head with 
joy.” 

" What an old darling ! What* does he say ? ” 

“ I gather that he thinks I’m not such a hopeless 


126 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

idiot as some of my cousins, who also had designs on 
him.” 

Glorinda was about to reply, but paused for a moment 
to scan Rupert's face. 

“ Rupert, you are excited. I’m surprised at you.” 

Rupert stiffened a little. To a man of his regimental 
traditions the accusation of excitement was an injurious 
one. 

“ Am I ? ” he asked drily. 

The Marchese diverted his eyes and thoughts from 
Glorinda, and looked at Rupert. Yes. It was true. 
The youth was excited. His face was flushed, his eyes 
had a sparkle. The Marchese made an unobtrusive 
but searching scrutiny of him. 

Rupert explained to Glorinda the conditions which 
had been laid down by his uncle. Glorinda was mutin¬ 
ous. She assailed the uncle. She attacked Rupert for 
his acquiescence. Rupert defended himself and his 
uncle. 

“ I know the old boy. He’s a dear old thing. But 
quite astonishingly immovable. He will stick to the 
conditions.” 

Glorinda seemed indignant and unconvinced, and 
Rupert cast a glance of appeal at Miss Lancaster. 
Miss Lancaster was nodding, and pursing her lips. Rupert 
fancied that he saw a light in her eye. 

“ You have an idea ? ” he asked. “ What is it ? ” 

Miss Lancaster threw a look at Glorinda, and suddenly 
burst out excitedly: 

‘‘You must show him Glorinda.” 

Again she nodded wisely, and she went on : 

“ As soon as possible. Wait a moment. Let me see. 
I bring Glorinda to London. We arrange a meeting 
with your uncle, a luncheon or a dinner. That will be 
quite easy. My brothers knew him ever so long ago.” 

She ran on with rising excitement. 

“ I’ll watch your uncle. I'll seize the right moment. ” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 127 

' O you wicked old Auntie ! ” cried Glorinda. 
“ Rupert, would you have believed it of her ? ” 

“You see,” Miss Lancaster went on, “ if you throw 
yourselves at his head-” 

“ It would put him off hopelessly,” Rupert acquiesced. 

“ We shall plan it all out,” said Miss Lancaster 
nodding her head, thrilled and happy. Rupert rose 
to go. 

“ I must answer my letter to-night,” he said. 

Miss Lancaster smiled approval. Rupert said good 
night and went out of the room, Glorinda accompanying 
him. Presently she returned and the Marchese next 
took his leave. He followed Rupert to his bedroom. 

“ Will you pardon me,” he asked Rupert, “ if I 
transgress a little our medical etiquette ? Will you allow 
me to take your temperature ? ” 

He produced from his breast pocket a clinical thermo¬ 
meter, and took the young man’s temperature, and 
showed him the result. 

“ Bed,” he suggested. 

“ I suppose so,” Rupert assented reluctantly. 

“ And you will write no letters to-night. I will 
bring you something to take now, and sometime during 
the night I will come and look at you.” 

“ That’s very kind of you. I suppose I shall be all 
right to-morrow.” 

“ We shall see. In the meantime you must rest.” 

The Marchese returned to the drawing room, where he 
found Miss Lancaster and Glorinda still sitting by the 
fire. He became at once conscious that Glorinda was 
focussing her attention on him. Suddenly she broke 
out, 

“You have been seeing Captain Lestrange.” 

“ Yes.” 

For a few moments she held the Marchese firmly fixed 
with her gaze, and he began to feel uneasy. Her next 
question came with the force of a bullet. 


128 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


" He is not well ? I noticed he was excited." 

The Marchese fidgeted uncomfortably. 

" It is nothing." 

“ You must tell me. What is it ? I have a right to 
know." 

Miss Lancaster seemed as if about to protest. But 
Glorinda pursued her enquiries implacably. 

" I must know, Marchese." 

“ I may go so far as to say that he has a touch of 
fever." 

Glorinda rose to her feet. 

“Iam going to nurse him." 

Her aunt protested. 

" O my dear, I am sure that’s quite unnecessary. 
Marchese, what do you think ? " 

" It is quite unnecessary. He is better left alone." 

Glorinda looked uncompromisingly at her aunt and 
the Marchese. She was seemingly in one of those moods 
in which conventional views have little chance of 
surviving. 

"It is to do with that terrible wound. If he is ill, 
I must be with him. Aunt Susan, you can see that." 

Her voice showed love and sincere emotion, but not a 
trace of defiance—not the shadow of any suspicion that 
there could be an objection to her going, or that any 
objection would be in the remotest degree relevant to 
the situation. 

" Auntie, I can't bear it. I must judge for myself. 
I am going to him." 

She swept out of the room. Miss Lancaster’s protes¬ 
tations remained paralysed on her lips. The Marchese 
shrugged his shoulders, recognising, as he had antici¬ 
pated, the advent of the inevitable and the irresistible. 


CHAPTER XVI 


Marcella, fiercely independent, had conceived an 
instantaneous contempt for the little room which had 
been allotted to her by the mistress of the Villa Stellini. 
Looking abroad over the panorama of Florence, she had 
noticed here and there a villa with a lofty tower. The 
Villa Stellini, too, had a tower. A tower, she decided, 
was the place to live in. The mistress of the Stellini 
pointed out that extra work would be involved. Mar¬ 
cella replied that she would do her own work; every 
woman ought to do her own work, and every man too, 
for that matter. So Marcella carried her point, and 
occupied the highest storey of the tower. There was a 
trapdoor in the ceiling, and a stepladder leading to the 
roof loggia. For furniture in her room she was satisfied 
with a folding bed, two chairs and a plain deal table. 

Marcella, after hearing the news that Rupert's future 
was assured, had retired from the drawing-room in a 
fury of disgust. She had not dared to allow herself to 
stay a moment longer amongst people whose every word 
would be an irresistible provocation to her. She dared 
not so much as lift her eyes to look at Rupert. 

Her aversion for Captain Lestrange was a curious 
manifestation of her freakisn habit of conceiving intense 
loves and fierce hatreds. Living as she did in strange 
coteries, devoted to advanced and eccentric thought, 
she had in time arrived at forming her own conception 
of those forces in society which she judged to be antagon¬ 
istic to her notions of progress. It seemed to her that 
agelong activities had built up a pyramidal system; 
at the top were kings, presidents, councillors, many of 
them inherently undistinguished, and owing their places 
of power to tradition and heredity. 

When she betook herself to her chamber in the tower, 
her thoughts dwelt with anger and hatred on the young 


129 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


130 

man who had come between Glorinda and the great 
future for which she had destined her. Rupert Lestrange 
was abominably and detestably typical. It seemed to 
her that she had seen an infinite number of Rupert 
Lestranges. The recollection came back to her of the 
entrances to the clubs of Pall Mall and Piccadilly. She 
saw the young men of England issuing composedly from 
these clubs. They stood at the head of the little flight 
of steps which led down to the pavement. They cast 
a glance to right and left; descended the steps mea- 
suredly to the pavement. They walked, in their 
hundreds, an imperturbable phalanx, all different from 
each other, and yet all recognisably similar. Some were 
undeniably from the country. Some had faces which 
were tanned by service or by sport in the tropics. Some 
had the impress of Whitehall, and some, of social activi¬ 
ties. But stamped on the top of all these superficial 
differences was the same hall-mark of a class that had 
secured itself in a place apart from the rest of the world. 

In the eyes of all there lay an aloofness, a faculty of 
measurement. Every man was individual in his way, 
but was marked nevertheless as a member of an army 
that would fall into line on hearing certain calls. And 
the strength, the immeasurable collective strength of 
that calm, cool-eyed legion ! Schools, regiments, uni¬ 
versities, the church, finance, the administration of 
dependent races, every branch of superior human activity 
contributed its quota to this great army of men. 
Marcella had but to cast a glance at one of these im¬ 
passive countenances, and in an instant she felt like a 
flimsy atom of spray from a wave that has spent its 
futile strength against a rock. A regiment of soldiers 
she could look at without fear. She could even regard 
them with contempt. A battleship was to her an 
intelligible obstacle ; a mob was a thing that she and her 
associates had studied, and could pretty well under¬ 
stand. A sea of faces at a great meeting she could face 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 131 

with courage and excitement. These were simple, 
tangible things. But to walk from the Athenaeum to 
the Cavalry Club, at a time when the men of St. James's 
were on the pavements, was a feat that made Marcella’s 
heart quail within her. 

She knew that though these men might not be clever, 
at any rate they were not fools. The stupidest lout 
from the country had about him some strange incalcul¬ 
able element, which was terrifying in its impregnability. 
And around the parks were the houses, row upon row, 
square after square, dignified and unobtrusive; and 
every house yielded its man, that same sort of man, the 
man whom Marcella despised and hated and could not 
understand. It was not a question of their political or 
social status. What maddened her was the intangibility 
of the strange quality that marked them. They were 
all good-looking, all well-dressed, all, as far as one could 
judge, machine-made. And yet Marcella’s imagination 
raved against them in impotent fury. Wherein lay 
their strength ? Consider this one individual of them, 
this Rupert Lestrange. What was there in him after 
all ? He was good-looking, and possessed a sort of 
unobtrusive distinction. He had a good war record. 
Yes, yes, yes, that was all true. But there were a 
hundred thousand like him in England, in France, in 
Italy, in America. Was this the sort of man who was 
to capture Glorinda, the paragon of beauty, the prodigy 
of character, the matchless Glorinda, who had in her 
this fast developing power to sway the hearts of women 
and men ? 

" We do want women of distinction.” Marcella 
muttered bitterly to herself. There were thousands of 
splendid workers, women of brains and capacity, of 
masterful character and great ambition, devoting them¬ 
selves to the cause. But where in the whole world was 
there one woman of true distinction ? The same con¬ 
sideration, it was true, applied equally to men. There 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


132 

was a mob of well-trained, shrewd, self-seeking men, 
but you might search the whoie world through, and there 
was the same lack of great men as of great women. 
Humanity had grown tired of waiting for its great 
man to appear. Even the thinkei s, the progressives, were 
reconciling themselves to the flat mediocrity of socialism. 
It was as clear as sunshine to Marcella that the Great 
War was merely the result of woman’s exclusion from 
affairs. After the orgy of carnage which had desolated 
the world, all thinking men were ready to admit that 
they were fools, that they had had the fate of humanity 
at their disposal, and had so bungled and mismanaged 
affairs that they were sick to death of their own futile 
and criminal folly. Surely now, if ever, was the time 
when the great qualities of womanhood must reveal 
themselves, must shake off this age-long suppression, 
and take their place as the true moulders of life. 

Marcella had seen enough of Glorinda during their 
fortnight in London to realize her magnetism, her 
effortless influence over men as well as women, her 
lovableness, her unconscious gift of leadership. In 
Marcella’s curious coteries the influence of the new 
personality had been felt instantaneously. Grey-headed, 
sober-minded Fabians, haggard females, from the 
Communist clubs, literary men and artists without 
exception, had fallen at Glorinda’s feet. But even in 
those regions of society which were closed to Marcella, 
she was aware that Glorinda’s reception had been no less 
enthusiastic than in those specialised circles that subsist 
on brains and ideas. In her fear lest Glorinda’s energies 
should be dissipated. Marcella had set herself to direct 
Glorinda’s imagination and ambition towards a political 
career. And from this point of view her visit to Florence 
was a special providence. It snatched the inexperienced 
Glorinda away from the multitudinous allurements of 
society. It delivered her into the hands of Marcella, 
who would shape and consolidate her ideas. And when. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


133 

they returned to London, Glorinda would be ready to 
take advantage of practical guidance from persons of 
experience in the world of wire-pulling. 

Was it conceivable that this flower of the human race 
should be wasted, should become a mere merchant's 
wife, directing a household, or, most futile indignity of 
all, producing children ? Was there no way of preventing 
such a degrading lapse from the noble ideals which she 
had cherished for this girl, whom she adored so intensely ? 
Marcella wrung her hands passionately. No. Glorinda 
might be worth a thousand of these commonplace well- 
bred youths, but alas 1 she loved one of them. The 
vulgar and incalculable passion of sexual love had seized 
her. It seemed incredible. Glorinda, the divine 
Glorinda ! One would as soon have believed such a thing 
of the Goddess Diana. 

There was a tap at her door, and her heart leapt. 
Her adored Glorinda had come to her. The door 
opened and Glorinda entered. Marcella, desperate, 
abashed and almost heart-broken, dared not meet her 
eyes. 

Glorinda was the first to speak. 

“ I stayed with Rupert until he fell asleep. I wanted 
them to make up a sofa for me in his room, but the 
Marchese said that might disturb him." 

“ How is Captain Lestrange ? " 

“ It is difficult to say. The Marchese thinks he has 
been doing too much, what with the journey and 
everything. What he wants is a good, uninterrupted 
rest." 

Marcella remained silent. “ She loves him. She 
loves him." The words repeated themselves dully in 
her brain. She gathered courage and looked up at 
Glorinda. 

Glorinda’s face, extraordinarily beautiful in the white 
moonlight, wore an unexpected expression of resolution. 

Ah 1 There was her Glorinda, the Glorinda whom she 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


134 

had discovered, the resolute, the irresistible. Marcella 
leaned forward eagerly to listen. 

“ Of course I shall marry Rupert immediately. It’s 
the only possible thing to do.” 

Marcella gazed at her in whole-souled admiration. 
If Glorinda must be sacrificed on the altar of convention, 
then of a surety this was the right way for her to take it, 
not as a meek maidenly victim offering her throat to the 
cold steel, but as one masterfully asserting a right. 

“ They will never allow it,” said Marcella. 

“ Who has any right to forbid it ? ” 

“ Your aunt won’t allow it.” 

" Really, my dear Marcella, you’re as medieval as 
Aunt Susan herself. Can you conceive that Aunt Susan 
actually followed me to Rupert’s room and wanted to 
prevent my sleeping there ? ” 

Marcella's brain sought busily to realize this new aspect 
of the situation. Glorinda was asserting herself. 
Glorinda would have her own way. Of a situation so 
troubled by cross-currents of will, it was impossible to 
surmise what might be the ultimate result. A gleam 
of hope flickered in Marcella’s face. 

Glorinda continued. 

" Aunt Susan will do as I ask her.” 

There was a convincing air of finality in the announce¬ 
ment, and Marcella nodded concurrence. Undoubtedly, 
Aunt Susan would do whatever Glorinda insisted on her 
doing. 

“ How about the old uncle ? ” Marcella asked. 

” I am going to see him, of course.” 

" If what they say about him is true, he won't agree.” 

“ He will.” 

But Marcella looked dubious. 

“ My dear Marcella,” Glorinda protested, *' what a 
baby you are ! Where's the difficulty ? It’s all as clear 
as daylight to me. First I get Aunt Susan's consent, 
and then the old uncle's, and then Rupert's. If I go 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


135 

straight away to London and see the uncle, the whole 
thing will be arranged within a week." 

Marcella still seemed to hesitate. 

" Will you go alone ? " she asked. 

" No, Aunt Susan will go with me. I think she will 
be useful." 

“ It’s a long journey for your aunt." 

" Dear Auntie, it seems a horrid shame, doesn’t it, 
dragging her about like that ? But it has to be. I’ll 
do all I can to make the journey as comfortable as 
possible for her." 

Marcella rose and turned her back on Glorinda, and 
looked out over the valley of the Arno. For a few 
moments she wavered in her resolution. Here was 
Glorinda, whom she loved. Was it not right that 
Glorinda should have her heart's desire ? Marcella 
wrestled with the momentary impulse which prompted 
her to aid Glorinda in every way in her power. Even 
from the little that had been said by Captain Lestrange 
and Miss Lancaster, Marcella had inferred the situation 
clearly. She had realized to the full the deadliness of the 
obstacle that confronted Captain Lestrange in the form 
of the uncle in his city office. The uncle was old, 
successful, intensely conservative, opinionative, stub¬ 
born. His foundations were immovably set behind a 
granite breakwater of tradition and experience. 
Glorinda's new-born impetuosity and masterfulness 
would dash with magnificent energy on the hewn masonry 
and would be dissipated in a glorious and resplendent 
cataract of spray. And the blocks of hewn masonry 
would remain unmoved, grim, impregnable. Was 
it the part of a true friend to caution Glorinda ? Was 
it her duty to counsel Glorinda to leave the negotiations 
entirely in the hands of age and tact and wisdom ? 
Marcella looked out over the moon-bathed landscape. 
The spiritual beauty of the scene swept over her. She 
felt herself lifted to a higher and more impersonal plane 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


136 

of imagination. Was not this moonlight, that so beauti¬ 
fied the world, the same in essence as the mystic genius 
of woman's nature, the mystic genius which was to 
irradiate humanity, and make of it a new and heavenly 
thing ? Was a contemptible, temporary impulse of 
sexuality to be permitted to divert her queen, her 
goddess, from the mighty future that lay at her feet ? 
Marcella made up her mind; she would do what she 
thought was best calculated to promote the rupture of 
the engagement. 

Shh turned again towards Glorinda. 

" You are quite right. I daresay your aunt will 
come in useful. But it lies between you and Captain 
Lestrange’s uncle. You will have to bear the brunt of 
the attack yourself." 

Glorinda laughed. 

" I’ve never had any doubt of that." 

"Or of the result ? " Marcella asked. 

"Or of the result. Thank you so much for your 
advice. It's exactly what I wanted to hear you say. 
Good-night." 

Marcella threw her arms round Glorinda’s neck, and 
buried her face in her bosom. Was she betraying her 
friend in thus sending her away to a frontal attack of 
which the result was a foregone conclusion ? She 
embraced Glorinda passionately, and Glorinda laughed 
with gay confidence. 

" You needn’t worry, child," she cried, " I shall come 
back with my shield, or on it." 

And she disengaged herself from Marcella’s clinging 
arms. 

As she descended the steps of the tower, Marcella 
stood listening until the echo of the retreating footsteps 
had died away. Then she seated herself at her table, 
and leaned forward with her face buried in her arms. 


CHAPTER XVII 


Nearly a week had elapsed. At the Villa Stellini, 
things had gone quietly, even dully. 

The Marchese, who was now Rupert’s authorised 
medical adviser, had definitely forbidden his patient any 
muscular exertion, and Rupert was passing his days in 
a long chair. Like any soldier who has undergone the 
benevolent rough-and-tumble of British army arrange¬ 
ments, he had learnt that the main discrimination in a 
soldier’s circumstances was not between safety and 
danger, or between ease and difficulty, or between 
subordination and responsibility, but merely between 
comfort and discomfort. He realized that he was 
comfortable at the Stellini, and his mind was filled 
accordingly with a very positive and simple-minded 
gratitude. 

At nine o’clock every morning Beppina and Giulietta, 
chattering and laughing and fluttering like a pair of 
starlings, came to make his room tidy. At ten o’clock 
the mistress of the Stellini made her daily inspection. 
At eleven, Beppina and Giulietta, whichever of them 
had been first to intercept the postman, ran up the stairs 
and breathlessly handed him his letters. At three in 
the afternoon General Bellamy came for an hour of 
gossip and a game of piquet ; he talked freely of India, 
of Thomasina, of Dominic Swift, of Miss Tucker, and, 
somewhat shyly, of Glorinda. 

Marcella went her own way. In curious dingy pen¬ 
sions she unearthed kindred souls, to whom Florence and 
its makers might be much, but cosmopolitan Communism 
was more. Askance she studied the Fascisti, Lenin's 
enemies. She recognised that she had a place among 
these perfervid Italians, on one side or the other ; but 
neither side used women as yet in Italy. Then her 
thoughts would swing back to Glorinda ; in a vision she 
*37 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


138 

would see Glorinda at the head of some great faction, 
and at Glorinda’s shoulder was a smaller female figure, 
guiding and worshipping. Eagerly she awaited the 
return from London of Miss Lancaster and Glorinda; 
ardently she hoped that the two would have failed in 
their mission. 

Rupert, for his part, had little hope of an immediately 
successful issue to the expedition. That Glorinda and 
her aunt would produce an impression on his uncle, 
he was sure ; and that this impression would in the long 
run tell favourably on his prospects was all that he and 
General Bellamy dared to count on for the present. 

In due course Glorinda and her aunt returned, defeated, 
from their wild raid upon the city of London. General 
Bellamy, anxious to know the outcome of the expedition, 
was seated at tea with Miss Lancaster on the terrace of 
the Villa Stellini. 

“You don’t despise tea, Jacky ? ” Miss Lancaster 
asked. 

“ I love it. Never in my life have I despised tea. 
In the trenches it was one of the signs of a real soldier 
that he would take a cup of tea when it was offered to 
him, at any hour of the day or night.” 

Miss Lancaster smiled her comprehension of this. 

“ I quite understand that you all had nerves then, 
and you wanted your tea, just like women.” 

General Bellamy deprecated the charge of nerves. 

“ Oh well, well, I wouldn’t put it just that way. Nerves 
you know ! A soldier-” 

“ It’s quite true, all the same. Do you think we 
women didn’t notice that ? We used to know it before 
you had found it out yourselves.” 

The General shook his head and frowned. 

“ Mustn’t talk about these things now. They’re 
all over. It’s no good reminding people. It isn’t 
healthy.” 

“ I needn't tell you I love afternoon tea. It’s a 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


139 

greater pleasure to me than all the real meals put to¬ 
gether. Especially after a long railway journey. You 
know, since Glorinda and I arrived this morning I’ve 
had breakfast and a sleep and luncheon and another rest. 
But I haven't really felt until this moment that the 
journey was over. It's sitting down to tea that does it." 

“ You're happy now ? " 

“ It means rest and comfort, and work finished, and 
all sorts of nice associations." 

“ Did you have a comfortable journey ? " 

“ Simply wonderful. Glorinda's an admirable 
traveller. She has the gift. She had everyone at her 
beck and call, and was never at a loss. She's not a girl 
now. She's a capable woman." 

" Perhaps you'll do me the favour of recollecting that 
I told you that at Victoria the first time I saw her. You 
didn't seem disposed to believe me then." 

“ Oh, I believe you now, and more. That Miss 
Tucker-" 

The General laughed. 

“ Well ? That Miss Tucker ? " 

" I detest her, as you know. But she is right about 
Glorinda. She professes to have discovered a star of 
the first magnitude in Glorinda, and she’s quite right." 

“ Nonsense, my dear Susan. Anyone could discover 
your niece. No one who knew Dominic Swift could 
have any manner of doubt about the sort of girl his 
daughter would be." 

" Yes, but Miss Tucker didn’t know Dom. Glorinda’s 
very remarkable, very distinguished. I have realised 
that now. She has magnetism. Miss Tucker was right 
about that. You ought to have seen our arrival at 
Florence this morning. The stationmaster happened 
to be on the platform. He must have seen Glorinda 
somewhere before, I suppose. Anyhow, he came up to 
her and asked if he could do anything. That was the 
signal ! First the porters clustered round us, beseeching 



140 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


us to let. them carry our hand baggage. I had one man 
for my sunshade and another for my cushion. Then 
the crowd on the platform stood still and stared. You 
know these Italians. They’re not a silent people, are 
they ? It was all "Bella, bellissima, la bella lnglese ! ' 
It passed along the crowd like the wind rustling, and the 
cab-drivers clamoured for us. I never heard such 
furious language. I thought they would assassinate 
each other.” . 

” There was just a trace of that sort of thing when 
she saw us off at Victoria.” 

" Ah yes ! People looked at her in the furtive English 
way. But these were Italians.” 

“ How did Glorinda take it ? ” 

" Like a princess. From what Miss Tucker tells me, 
she had once had an experience of the same sort in 
London at one of those queer clubs of Miss Tucker’s.” 

General Bellamy’s thoughts went back to Glorinda’s 
father. 

“ I’m not surprised,” he said. " There was always a 
tightening up in the ranks, when Dom took the battalion. 
Dom on his charger was a picture, I must say.” 

" But that wasn’t all. There happened to be a 
parade of Fascisti in the station yard. They noticed 
the commotion among the porters and cab drivers, and 
the station-master bowing and smiling. And there was 
Glorinda towering over them all, and looking, oh so 
magnificent. Very stern and rather fierce, you know. 
She has hardly spoken since we left London except to 
give orders. I suppose the Commandant thought it was 
Royalty. Anyhow he called his men to attention. A 
Royal bodyguard, my dear Jacky, no less. Glorinda 
noticed nothing. She stared right over the little 
Commandant’s head. I had to speak to her. I said, 

* Glorinda, this is for you. You must acknowledge it.’ 
She suddenly woke up from a sort of dream, and looked 
at the Commandant and the Black Shirts and the station- 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


141 

master. And then she smiled, oh such a splendid smile, 
as if she loved every one of them. We drove away, 
bowing to the Commandant, such a nice looking young 
man, very young, with rows and rows of war-ribbons. 
And as we drove out of the gates we heard the Fascisti 
rallying-cry behind us. You know it. ‘Eia ! Eia ! 
alala ! Fascisti, Fascisti, Fascisti !' Oh, it was thrilling." 

" Shocking bad discipline." 

"No, Jacky. Suppose they had been right. Suppose 
we had been what they took us for." 

" That would have been worse still." 

" Oh, discipline is all very well. We all know that 
Prussians wouldn’t have done it. But which do you 
really like best ? ” 

" I confess I prefer the Fascisti. Won’t the girl get 
her head turned with all this ? " 

" Not one bit. I don’t believe she has a particle of 
vanity in her disposition." 

There was a short silence between them. 

The general regarded Miss Lancaster with sympathetic 
cynicism. This talk of the circumstances attending 
Glorinda’s arrival was interesting enough in its way, 
but it was after all mere evasion of the difficulty. His 
old friend would be obliged sooner or later to summon up 
her courage and tell him about her expedition to London 
and her interview with the terrible Sir Robert. 

The General waited patiently. 

The usually placid Susan Lancaster resumed her 
narrative with a volubility which had its source in 
nervousness. 

" Oh, but that wasn’t all. We saw the great man 
himself.” 

" Who is your great man ? I didn’t know that there 
were any great men left." 

" It was Mussolini, of course." 

General Bellamy thumped his knee. 

" By Gad ! Now that was interesting. You call him 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


142 

the great man, do you ? Upon my word I believe you’re 
right. He’s the only real man in the world at the 
moment.” 

“ O Jacky, what nonsense. Think of . . . ” She 
hesitated. 

“ Well Susan, whom do you want me to think of ? ” 
As she hesitated further he went on ; “ There isn’t 
another, and you know that as well as I do. Well, tell 
me about Mussolini.” 

" We drove out of the station. Then at the far end 
of the street leading to the Duomo we heard shouting. 
All the people on the pavements near us looked along 
in that direction. Suddenly here and there they began 
to cry out, " The Leader, the Leader.” Then the whole 
street seemed to move along in a black swarm. I 
asked the driver who it was, but he looked very sour 
and muttered something angrily. I suppose he was a 
communist. Then we heard the noise of a lot of men 
running all together, and we looked round and saw that 
company of Fascisti doubling up from the station yard. 
Our driver didn’t want to move, but Glorinda just 
ordered him, so he whipped up his horse. We came to 
the place where the Fascisti had halted. They were 
drawn up across the street, so we couldn’t pass. The 
young officer in charge of the Fascisti saw Glorinda, and 
came up and apologised and offered to let us through, 
but we said we would wait. So we saw Mussolini. It 
was only a glimpse. He came out of some office building, 
a newspaper I think, and stepped into his car and was 
driven away. The people went mad. I never saw such 
wild enthusiasm.” 

” And what was Mussolini like ? ” 

" He looks like, oh, I can’t describe him. He looks 
like a volcano. He looks as if he could spout lava and 
hurl red hot boulders into the air. We were standing 
up in our carriage. His eyes swept the crowd and 
stopped at Glorinda. I had a feeling that something 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 143 

was going to happen. However, nothing did. He 
drove away. Our driver made a grimace and laughed 
and shrugged his shoulders again. Then we drove on. 
Of course the Fascisti were all staring at Glorinda again.'* 

The General laughed. 

“ Mussolini will be too strong for these boys. However, 
he is just what they want. Well, Susan, let us come to 
the point. How about Sir Robert Lestrange ? " 

Miss Lancaster held up her hands in a gesture of 
helplessness. 

" 0 my dear, my dear. It was a dead failure. He 
didn't budge a hair's breadth. The poor girl had taken 
things into her own hands, you see. And she hadn't 
a chance with him." 

“ I thought you were to direct the operations." 

" I thought so, too, until we started on the journey to 
London. Then I realized that Glorinda was going to 
keep me out of it. I was surprised at her doing so. I 
confess I was mortified. I had understood that I was 
to help her. I wasn't badly placed for it. My brothers 
were business friends of Sir Robert's. I had my little 
plan and I do believe—oh, Jacky I really do think— 
I could have been helpful. We old people, when all's 
said and done, there are some things that we can manage 
better than the young ones." 

General Bellamy shrugged his shoulders. 

“ That's not the modem doctrine. But go on. Tell 
me what happened." 

" What puzzles me about Glorinda’s behaviour is 
that we had it all arranged before we left. Rupert was 
full of hope. He trusted me implicitly. Oh, he’s a 
dear boy." 

She paused a moment, and then broke out with im¬ 
ploring emphasis, 

“ Jacky ! " 

“ Yes, what is it ? " 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


144 

“ I do hate that Tucker woman.” 

" Do you think she was at the bottom of it ? ” 

“ I'm positive of it. Can’t we send the creature 
away ? ” 

The General pondered the suggestion. 

“ Hardly. But perhaps we could run away our¬ 
selves.” 

“ Oh, but we can’t. Rupert mustn’t be moved. The 
Marchese is quite convinced of that. He declares that 
complete rest is the only thing that is of any use, if he 
is to make a correct diagnosis. It is a question of 
another operation.” 

" He’s had half-a-dozen already.” 

“ Oh, it’s dreadful, dreadful. The poor boy ! At 
the same time, the Marchese says there is quite a good 
chance that these symptoms may turn out to be unim¬ 
portant. But he insists on complete rest. Rupert’s 
feeling so well himself, but there is always the danger 
hanging over him. We can't leave him.” 

“ No, we daren’t leave him.” 

They were silent for a little. And then Miss Lan¬ 
caster, with an effort, resumed. 

“ I tried my best to get Glorinda to talk things over 
with me on the journey. One must arrange some sort 
of procedure beforehand, mustn’t one ? ” 

“Yes. When it’s a question of tactics, you can't be 
too definite.” 

“ But I couldn't get anything out of her. I might 
have been a child from the way she treated me. She 
was very sweet and kind, of course. She always is, to 
me. But as for discussing anything-” 

General Bellamy shook his head sadly. 

“ That’s her father all over.” 

" I suppose so. Perhaps. Well, when we reached 
London, she went straight away herself to see Sir Robert. 
I haven’t found out exactly what happened. But she 
came back absolutely defeated. She was in a white 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 145 

fury, trembling all over. She wouldn't say a word to me 
about it. She simply dragged me back to Florence with 
her. I was afraid to speak to her. I did summon up 
courage once. But it was useless. She just smiled, 
and looked right through me, as if I wasn't there. I 
have been wondering all the time. I'm wondering still.” 

“ What do you mean ? ” 

“ She has a plan. I can see that. She’s determined 
on something. She won't confess herself beaten.” 

" Gad ! How it comes back to me ! It’s dear old Dom 
all over again. He would go his own way.” 

" Yes, but Dom was a man. Think of this dear child. 
What does she know ? What can she do ? ” 

General Bellamy pondered. 

“ .She’ll go her own way,” he declared. “ You can't 
stop her.” 

Again Miss Lancaster held up her hands in a gesture 
of helpless protest. 

" Did you see Sir Robert yourself ? ” the General 
asked. 

" Oh, certainly. I thought it my duty. It was 
perfectly hopeless, of course. The mischief was done. 
Glorinda had put things on the wrong basis.” 

“ She had queered your pitch.' 

“ Exactly.” 

“ I felt so wretchedly weak and futile. I don't pretend 
to have a strong character. How can I expect to 
produce any effect on people like that ? ” 

She cast a plaintive glance at the General. 

“ Of course, of course, ” the General assented. “ When 
people like that once get their blood up, there's no doing 
anything with them.” 

"If Glorinda had only given me time I If she had 
only allowed me to set to work in my own way ! ” 

" Hopeless, hopeless. How did Sir Robert strike 
you ? ” 

“ Oh, Sir Robert was perfectly charming. But there 


1. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


146 

again, you see, he was just like Glorinda. He treated 
me as if I were a child that he was very fond of. He 
was so kind and gentle, and he has such sweet old- 
fashioned manners. But as for my having any influence 
over him-,” 

“ I expect you influenced him a good deal more than 
you think.” 

"Yes, but even so, Jacky, he influenced me too. 
How could I keep on fighting a man, when I was becoming 
more and more convinced every moment that he was 
right ? It was the enemy within the gates. I had never 
hoped for anything more than a sort of compromise. 
I had thought he might perhaps be induced to shorten 
Rupert’s period of probation. But of course he had me 
at his mercy there. How could he be positive how long 
it would take Rupert to prove his fitness, or indeed how 
could he be sure that Rupert was the right man at all ? 
He made it quite clear to me that what Glorinda was 
asking was that he should guarantee Rupert's future on 
conditions which were to be laid down by Glorinda. Of 
course he refused. I don’t blame him, Jacky, do you ? ” 

” Is the old offer still open ? ” 

“ Yes, there's no doubt about that. He’s very fond 
of Rupert.” 

“ I must say, the old man appears to me to be a bit of 
a sportsman. The question now is, what is Glorinda up 
to ? Haven’t you any notion ? ” 

“ Not the faintest. I feel so helpless. I do trust that 
she won’t do anything rash.” 

" She'll go her own way.” 

” But what can the poor girl do ? ” 

The General pondered for a little, and nodded his 
head emphatically. 

” Yes, she'll go her own way. She’ll surprise you. 
You'll get a shock, I shouldn’t wonder. You can prepare 
to receive cavalry.” 


CHAPTER XVIII 


Rupert was lying back at full length on the sofa, in his 
bedroom at the Villa Stellini. With the docility of a 
trained soldier, he was carrying out the Marchese’s 
instructions. The Marchese, he had learnt, was, or 
had been, a very eminent surgeon, and certainly he had 
the manner of a doctor who has cultivated the habit of 
exercising authority over his patients. 

“ You are intelligent,” the Marchese had said. " And 
you are a soldier, and I can therefore trust you to do 
exactly as you are told. Certain medicines, a certain 
diet, complete rest, these I prescribe. From time to 
time I take my observations. A week hence I form an 
opinion, and we shall know for certain. The conditions 
are ideal. It is not as in war time. In a case such as 
yours, one did not have seven days in which to make up 
one’s mind; one had seven seconds. And you are a 
good patient You will give your poor doctor a chance.” 

The restlessness of fever had vanished quickly. The 
lassitude that follows it had been surmounted, and had 
given place to a clear mind, and a vigorous and even 
harassing vitality. Rupert persevered in the process of 
auto-suggestion ; industriously and faithfully he set 
himself to cultivate an attitude of quiescence. In 
his daily visitor, General Bellamy, he had discovered an 
admirable tonic. The General’s fierce dogmatism, his 
highly coloured tales of Army life in India, his masterful 
roughness and his essential gentleness were a constant 
refreshment. Save that he had to caution the General 
against making him laugh to excess, there was no check 
in the freedom of their intercourse. And at regular 
intervals the Marchese visited him, and was a reinforce¬ 
ment to his composure. 

To-day was the day of Glorinda's return from Eng¬ 
land. And Rupert was awaiting her with the best 
147 


THE * SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


148 

counterfeit of patience that lie could muster. Glorinda, 
so the Marchese had ordered, was to be permitted to see 
Rupert for a few minutes after his afternoon sleep. 
But all excitement was, he cautioned her, to be avoided 
as much as possible. The Marchese intimated dis¬ 
creetly that he did not entirely trust young lovers, and 
he reserved to himself the right to put an end to their 
interview when he considered that it had lasted a reason¬ 
able time. 

There was tap at the door, and Glorinda entered. 
For a second, perhaps for two seconds, she was held by 
the Marchese’s injunction to her to be calm. Then like 
a homing pigeon she swooped down on Rupert. 

“ Rupert, I’m not to excite you. Are you excited ? ” 

Rupert’s eyes twinkled. 

“ Well, to be quite honest with you, I think I am. 
Just a little.” 

“ Oh but 3/011 mustn’t be. Rupert, don’t get excited. 
Darling ! Promise.” 

“ I’ll do my best.” 

She knelt with her arms round his neck, and they were 
silent for a time. 

“ Are you excited now, Rupert ? ” 

" Not a bit,” he laughed. 

" Then I’ll get a footstool and sit beside you and tell 
you everything.” 

She fetched the footstool, but when she tried to speak 
he seemed at a loss. Rupert helped her out of her 
difficulty. 

" It didn’t quite come off, did it ? ” he asked, looking 
at her with tender amusement and compassion. 

" It was a horrid, horrid failure. O Rupert, I made 
such a fool of myself. Instead of trusting Aunt Susan, 
I tried to do it all myself.” 

“ You needn’t distress yourself about that. Aunt 
Susan wouldn’t have been any more successful than 
you.” 


149 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

" She couldn’t have done worse.” 

“ After all, you know, your Aunt Susan never expected 
my uncle to do anything definite. A man in my uncle’s 
position simply can’t and won’t do that.” 

“ He declared that I was attempting to dictate to him 
the terms on which you were to come into his business.” 

“ And weren’t you ? ” Rupert laughed. 

An expression of impatience crossed her face. 

“ Well, suppose I was. It was for you I was doing 
it. If he wasn’t going to give way, why should he pre¬ 
tend to be so fond of you ? ” 

“ Is he fond of me ? ” 

“ Anyone can see that.” 

” Does he object to our engagement ? ” 

“ No.” 

“ Well, dearest, surely that is something gained. 
That is really important.” 

“ Aunt Susan says he likes me.” 

“ There you are. That's another thing gained.” 

“ He didn't behave as if he liked me. Apparently 
he found me very amusing,” Glorinda said bitterly. 

Rupert consoled her. 

“ I’ve no doubt he’s fallen in love with you.” 

“ I’m not a baby. And if he's so fond of us both, 
why should he be such an old pig ? I hate him,” she 
added vehemently. 

“ Oh, no you don’t.” 

She was silent for a time, and then broke out 
impetuously. 

“I'm a perfect beast. I haven’t asked you a single 
thing about yourself. How are you getting on ? 
You're looking splendid.” 

“I am splendid. The Marchese’s awfully pleased 
with me ” 

“ What is he afraid of then ? ” 

Rupert hesitated. At last he answered : 

“ Complications of sorts.” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


150 

" What sort of complications ? ’’ 

“ We needn't go into that, need we ? ” 

Glorinda looked at him uncompromisingly. 

“ My dear boy, you may as well tell me at once. I’ve 
got to know." 

“ It's what they call septic conditions, or something 
of that sort." 

She seemed to be considering his admission carefully. 
At last, 

" Oh," she said, " something inside." 

" Yes. One of the old operations probably. You see 
when they pick you up, they rush you off to the field 
hospital, and there are hundreds of others waiting." 

" I understand that. But you’ve had operations since 
then. Don’t the doctors know by this time ? " 

" Why talk about it, dearest ? You know that the 
Marchese is a first-class man. You must trust him just 
as I do. I trust him implicitly." 

But Glorinda was not diverted one hair’s breadth from 
her insistence on knowing the whole truth. 

" Come, darling, you must tell me. If you’ve had all 
these operations, don’t the doctors know exactly how 
things are ? " 

Rupert, desperately uncomfortable, blurted out: 

" Well yes, as far as they’ve gone." 

Glorinda pondered. 

" Ah, they haven't gone deep enough. Is that why ? " 

"Yes," Rupert confessed reluctantly. 

" Then the next operation is going to be the most 
serious of them all." 

" Pooh ! What’s an operation ? Besides, there isn't 
going to be an operation." 

Glorinda looked at him searchingly. Was he speaking 
what he believed to be the truth ? 

Rupert became restless under her scrutiny. 

" Rupert, I’ve spoken to the Marchese." 

" Well, suppose you have ? What then ? " 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


i5i 

" Tell me the truth.” 

“ I’ve told you the truth.” 

“ You haven’t. There’s going to be another opera¬ 
tion.” 

“ Very well then, there is.” 

“ I knew that. You see Rupert, you and the Mar- 
chese are very clever. But you can’t deceive a woman 
who loves you.” 

She leaned forward and kissed him. 

” Don’t worry about the operation, Rupert darling. 
You'll pull through all right. You’re ever so much 
stronger after your week’s rest.” 

“ I feel fit for anything,” he laughed. 

She looked long and searchingly into his eyes. Then 
she made her announcement. 

“ Rupert, I’m going to marry you.” 

“ Of course you are.” 

“ But now, I mean. Immediately.” 

“ It’s impossible.” 

“ If it’s the right thing to do, it can’t be impossible.” 

“ I don’t follow that quite.” 

“ It is as clear as daylight. If you died and I hadn’t 
married you, I should feel a coward and a criminal all 
the rest of my life.” 

“ It isn't the right thing for me to do.” 

“ Yes, for you, too.” 

“ I’m not going to die.” 

“I'm quite sure you’re not. That's all the more 
reason. You’ll be an invalid for months.” 

“ A nice sort of husband.” 

“ Exactly. You can’t deny that you'll want a wife.” 

“ It’s sheer madness.” 

“ Well, then, if I’m mad, I'm mad. Anyway I’m 
Glorinda. Your Glorinda. Your wife. I’m your wife 
already. Can't you see that ? O Rupert, you can't help 
seeing it.” 

“ I want to believe that, darling. There's nothing in 


152 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


the world that I want more to believe. But you must 
consider the consequences." 

" But I have, dearest. I have told you I should never 
forgive myself. I should be miserable for the rest of my 
life, if I didn’t marry you." 

" I mean as regards my prospects." 

" Your prospects ? Business ? Does that seem im¬ 
portant to you ? It doesn't to me. There is something 
else which is far more important." 

She pressed his hand to her cheek. 

" Rupert, I love you. Do you understand, dearest ? 
You are the only person in the world to me. I never 
thought of love until I saw you. Did you, Rupert ? 
Now I know what it is. Every minute of it is a priceless 
jewel. I can’t leave you. I daren’t leave you. The 
rest of the world can go its own way. You and I are 
our own world. I told your uncle that nothing could 
separate us. But I was a fool, Rupert. He was 
yielding. I can see that now. I went and lost my 
temper. I dragged Aunt Susan back to Florence, when 
I ought to have stayed on and seen him again. He 
would have given way. I know it. I know it. I ran 
away because I was ashamed of myself. I thought he 
was too strong for me. But I have made up my mind 
since then. There is only one thing we can do. I 
must marry you." 

Rupert shook his head. 

" We can do it, Rupert. I have a little money." 

"You are a minor. Presumably, too, you’re a ward. 
The chances are that you can neither touch your money 
nor marry without the consent of your guardians." 

" Oh, aren’t you clever ? Allow me to tell you that 
Aunt Susan has complete control over my property." 

Rupert still seemed doubtful. 

" And as regards your uncle," she urged, " you must 
remember that I shall be his niece then." 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


153 

“ Personally. my darling, if I were my uncle, I should 
find you irresistible." 

" Thank you, sweetheart." 

She leaned forward and kissed him. 

" There’s one point to consider. You’re not in your 
uncle's business yet. And you're not disobeying any 
orders if you marry me." 

Rupert could not help laughing. 

" That’s an evasion," he said. " He would see through 
that. It would set him dead against me." 

" Write to-day and give up the appointment. And 
then marry me at once. Then we shall go and ask your 
uncle for the appointment." 

" Of course he would see through that, too." 

"We could persuade him." 

" I’m absolutely certain that we couldn’t." 

" Hasn't he lots of influence in the city ? " 

" Yes." 

" Then he could get you another appointment." 

" A clerkship or something, I daresay. But look at the 
difference in the prospects. In my uncle’s office I look 
forward to a partnership. In another business, at my 
age, without capital, without family influence, it would 
be madness." 

" Old people have no hearts, Rupert. Their hearts 
are all shrivelled up like walnuts." 

" My uncle plays for safety. All these successful old 
men do. It's right against all his traditions to be 
hustled into anything. You’re aiming at his vital part. 
You're like a cyclone, Glorinda." 

" But even if I waited for four years, I should still be a 
cyclone, shouldn’t I ? " 

"I'm not so sure of that. You would know your 
place by that time. At any rate I should know mine." 

"You wouldn’t allow me to behave like a cyclone ? " 
she laughed. 

" Business is business." 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


154 

" Rupert, you’re as hard as your uncle. But it's 
settled, you know. I’m going to marry you now. I 
won’t bother you any more to-day. It isn’t good for 
you. Let us be happy. I like your blue dressing gown. 
It’s the same colour as your eyes.” 

“ The dressing gown was a present. I may say 
that men don't buy dressing gowns to match their 
eyes.” 

“ That is very silly of them. I think they ought to.” 

” What is the colour of your frock ? ” 

“ It is what they call apple-green ? ” 

" Your eyes aren’t apple-green.” 

“ What are they ? ” 

" In this light, they're topaz.” 

" Your eyes don’t change colour. Do mine ? ” 

“ Yes, they keep on changing. Sometimes they are 
amber, sometimes golden, but they are always the most 
beautiful eyes in the world.” 

She leaned forward. 

“ Shut your eyes,” she commanded. She kissed him 
on the eyelids. 

“ Beautiful blue eyes,” she said. 

He looked at her in a rapturous luxury. 

“ Your hair changes colour too,” he said. 

“ You like my hair ? ” 

“ It is the most beautiful hair in the world. It is 

copper and gold and-” 

Red ? "she asked. 

“ Red is the king of colours.” 

“ Then I have red hair ? ” 

“ Well, from that point of view.” 

“ Horrid rude boy.” 

He drew her head forward and kissed her hair. 

“ I expect you know far more about your own hair 
than I do,” he laughed. 

She leaned her cheek on his breast. 

“ I mustn’t squeeze you/’ she said. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 155 

“ Doctor’s orders,” he laughed. " But someday you 
shall.” 

There was a tap at the door. Glorinda showed no 
signs of being disconcerted. With her cheek still on 
Rupert's breast she murmured : 

“ Come in.” 

The door opened, and the Marchese stood on the thres¬ 
hold. Rupert blushed. The Marchese raised his 
eyebrows. Glorinda looked up at him with a lazy, 
mocking gleam in her eyes. But she did not change her 
position. 

The Marchese nodded gravely. He loved this little 
scene of Juliet telling her love to a wounded Romeo. 
“ Inevitable,” he thought to himself. " It is fate. I 
knew it. But from a medical point of view ? ” 

His hand mechanically sought his inner breast pocket, 
and he brought forth a clinical thermometer. 

“ W T ill you pardon me, if I suggest-” 

” Yes, I’m going away now. He’s splendid, Marchese. 
I haven't done him any harm.” 

On the threshold she turned and blew a kiss to Rupert. 

The Marchese closed the door gently behind her, and 
turning to his patient looked at him a little reproach¬ 
fully with his serious brown eyes. 

“ My dear young friend, I am anticipating a slight rise 
in your temperature.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


“ He won’t marry me,” said Glorinda sadly. 

Marcella considered within herself that this Rupert 
of Glorinda’s must assuredly be the most incredibly 
foolish of an army of fools. Here was the divinest and 
most glorious woman in the world, passionately in love 
with him. What impertinence it was on his part to refuse 
her ; it was like declining the hand of a fairy princess. 
Surely this blind folly deserved the instant vengeance of 
fate. Entirely opposed to the idea of Glorinda's 
marriage, she none the less raged at the insult to her 
adored one. 

Marcella’s active brain set itself to work on the problem 
that confronted her friend. It was not that she desired 
to help Glorinda to marry Rupert. Yet if there was to 
be any question of tdking a husband, she believed, and 
not without good reason, that Glorinda’s personality 
could not fail to command quickly the admiration of 
men who were infinitely more distinguished than to her 
thinking Captain Lestrange was ever likely to become. 
If Glorinda had to have a husband, let her wait a little 
longer, and make her selection from the wide field of 
choice which would soon be available to her. A mar¬ 
riage with a nobody, with a person whose thoughts, so 
far as he had any faculty of thinking, had no bearing on 
the greater issues of life, was a disaster that must be 
prevented at all hazards. 

After all, Captain Lestrange’s ambitions were now 
essentially those of a tradesman, a money-maker. 
Marcella had spent her girlhood in suburban conditions, 
and suburban snobbishness. The minutest gradations 
in the weird social hierarchy of the middle class were 
familiar to her from childhood. A tradesman was a 
tradesman, and unless gilded by an opulence which was 
seldom attained, was a creature of a lower grade than the 
156 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


157 

brain worker or the possessor of private means. And 
later, when Marcella left her High School, and achieved 
complete emancipation amid the most progressive of her 
sex, the tradesman, the middle man, the non-producer, 
soon came to be ruthlessly classified by her as dangerous 
parasites on the life of the community. The sons of 
successful tradesmen were in a position to aspire to 
membership of the great army that had its headquarters 
in Piccadilly. But they retained their selfishness and 
their imperviousness to ideas. Glorinda’s manifest 
destiny was to be a leader of women and men ; failing 
that, if she must marry, let her marry not a tradesman 
or a nonentity, but a man who was already a leader. 

Marcella decided to discuss the matter with Glorinda. 
A postponement of the marriage did not quite satisfy 
Marcella, although any delay contained elements of 
hopefulness. What she must do was to explore the 
position further, so that she might be able to turn the 
situation in such a direction as would provoke a definite 
and immediate rupture. 

“ Why on earth won’t he marry you ? ” she asked. 

" What I proposed to him was that we should marry 
first, and tell his uncle afterwards. But he won’t have 
that. He says he can’t break his word.” 

“ Has he really given his word ? ” 

" There isn’t any doubt about that. He accepted the 
appointment on the terms that Sir Robert laid down. 
Besides that, my visit to London makes it quite clear 
that he agreed to the conditions. He is perfectly right 
there. He can’t break his word.” 

Marcella nodded her assent. There was a point of 
honour involved, and she knew enough of the class to 
which Captain Lestrange belonged to be aware that in a 
question of honour he would be immovable. 

” Then,” Glorinda pursued, “ I suggested that he could 
write and throw up the appointment. That would leave 
him free to marry me.” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


158 

“ Did he object to that ? ” 

“ He wouldn’t look at it. What I really meant was, 
that he could do that with the intention of getting the 
appointment later.” 

“ Oh, but Glorinda,” said Marcella disingenuously, 
“ that's a splendid idea ! You could get round the old 
man afterwards.” 

“ Rupert says, * No.’ ” 

" Glorinda, you could get round anybody.” 

Glorinda pondered. 

“ It wouldn’t exactly be a question of getting round 
anybody. That doesn’t somehow sound very nice. I 
don’t like looking at it in that way.” 

“ In what way do you look at it then ? ” 

“ What I mean is that if we married first, we 
should then try to persuade Sir Robert to give us the 
appointment.” 

“ What’s the difference ? ” Marcella asked. 

“ Getting round a person sounds like deceiving, which 
is exactly what we don’t want to do. We want to be 
perfectly honest about it.” 

Marcella laughed cynically. 

“ Call it what you please,” she said. 

“ Rupert won’t agree, any how. He is positive that 
his uncle would refuse to take him. He says that Sir 
Robert simply couldn’t swallow the notion of being 
jockeyed into it, however much he wanted to have Rupert 
in his office.” 

“ Funny old thing ! ” said Marcella. “ Well, if you 
object to the idea of getting round the old man, what you 
have to do is to make up your mind to marry Captain 
Lestrange now, and to dismiss the idea of the appoint¬ 
ment entirely from your head. Just take the plunge.” 

“ Rupert won’t agree to that either. He won’t 
marry without prospects. And apart from his uncle, 
he has no prospects.” 

Inwardly, Marcella was full of mockery. Had the 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 159 

situation been hers, how easily she could have outwitted 
an obstinate uncle. A little manoeuvring, a little 
secrecy, a little stretching of points and swallowing of 
scruples, and all would be easily arranged. But these 
grown-up children with their nursery morals were bound 
to create impossible situations. Was there any con¬ 
ceivable proposal to which the stubborn Captain Les- 
strange would listen ? In a burst of mockery Marcella 
cried, 

“ Marry him secretly ! " 

Glorinda drew a deep breath of delight. 

" How lovely ! ’’ she cried. “ How tremendously 
romantic ! Yes, we could do that." 

Marcella looked at her shrewdly. How long would she 
be in discovering the fallacy that underlay the sugges¬ 
tion ? Marcella continued: 

" Let Captain Lestrange write and tell his uncle that 
he definitely refuses the appointment. You are not 
thinking of the appointment. You have given up all 
hope of it." 

"Yes, we could do that." 

" Then do it." 

She watched, while the exultation on Glorinda’s face 
faded away and was replaced by a look of disappoint¬ 
ment. 

" Of course that’s all wrong, Marcella. The mere fact 
of the marriage being secret proves that there’s a scheme 
behind it." 

" But there isn’t; you’ve admitted there isn’t." 

" I haven’t admitted anything of the sort, of course. 
Otherwise there's no object in the marriage being secret." 

" Well, marry him openly." 

“ He refuses. I told you that." 

Marcella broke out angrily. 

" He’s not worthy of you." 

" Oh yes, he is." 

Marcella broke out again: 


i6o THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

" This perpetual talk of marriage sickens me. What 
is marriage after all ? An absurd obsolete ceremony. 
I can't conceive why it should offer any obstacle to a 
reasoning creature." 

“ Marcella ! " 

"You agree with me yourself. You know you do. 
We have discussed it all before. We have agreed that 
the idea of marriage is simply a medieval superstition." 

Marcella was talking at random. She was making a 
speech, because she was angry and excited. A horror 
of irregular unions was deeply rooted in her invincible 
suburbanism. But she had a surface dressing of views, 
acquired at the period of her emancipation. She had 
expressed these views, now, to Glorinda, but there was 
an immediate reaction. She realized the implication of 
her suggestion, and was ashamed of herself, and was on 
the point of uttering a sort of apology. But a look at 
Glorinda’s face checked her. She saw there the grandeur 
of a great idea, a noble resolution. 

" Why, of course, Marcella. That solves everything. 
I can live with Rupert without marrying him. What a 
fool I was not to think of that ! " 

She leaped to her feet and ran to Marcella and threw 
her arms round her neck and kissed her. 

" O you clever, clever girl," she cried. " I'm so 
grateful to you. It solves the whole difficulty. I must 
run p.nd tell Rupert at once." 

Marcella, horrified, stared fixedly into vacancy, 
What power was this that she had let loose ? It was easy 
enough to proclaim all these new doctrines, which sub¬ 
verted the existing social order. The ideas were in 
themselves true and reasonable, and the world would 
come round to them in the long run. Every thinking 
person admitted that marriage under modem conditions 
was an anomaly, and that restriction on divorce was an 
absurdity. But Marcella, relying always upon ideas, 
had never realized how seldom ideas succeeded in arriving 
beyond the stage of being mere words. To translate 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


161 


the abstract into the concrete, in the case of a person 
whom she adored, seemed somehow to be a different 
matter. Love must of course be free. Love in fetters 
was no longer love. Nothing could be clearer than that, 
as a theory. But consider the special case. Here was 
Glorinda, in unabashed innocence, proposing to put the 
theory into practice. Was her peerless Glorinda to 
furnish to the world this concrete example, to prove its 
rightness, its purity, its splendour ? Perhaps. And yet, 
and yet, there was the other side of the question, and 
Marcella's Puritan soul shuddered at it. 

“ What’s the matter, Marcella ? You do agree with 
me, don’t you ? " 

“ Yes, yes," Marcella replied. “ Of course." And she 
went on confusedly and feebly : " It’s a splendid idea." 

“ Isn't it ? Only think of it. To be with Rupert always. 
The poor boy is in danger, you know, and he will be an 
invalid for ever so long. O Marcella, it’s magnificent." 

Then Marcella laughed outright. She had for a few 
moments been overwhelmed, and had lost her power of 
judgment. But suddenly she recovered herself, and 
realized that her alarm was needless. Captain Lestrange 
would certainly not lend himself to anv such scheme. 
More than that, he might be expected to be shocked and 
horrified. What would he think of Glorinda ? What 
conclusions could he hardly avoid being driven to ? 
He would not class her as vicious. No one could do 
that. But he would most assuredly class her as an 
impossible fool. 

Did not then this impetuosity of Glorinda’s open the 
way to a probable dissolution of the engagement ? 
Glorinda would insist with enthusiasm. But as for 
Captain Lestrange, it was certain that propriety, 
tradition, honour, every respectable instinct in his mind 
would be violated. Would not such a contest, hotly 
conducted from either side, lead inevitably to a violent 
rupture of relations ? Marcella’s mind was humming 
with joyous anticipations of success. 


i 62 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


“ Why do you laugh, Marcella ? ” 

“ It would be rather a lark wouldn’t it ? You would 
have to keep it secret.” 

“ Marcella, you do have the oddest way of looking at 
things. It isn't a lark. It’s the most serious affair in 
the world. And why should you call it a secret ? Just 
as if there were something to be ashamed of. Because 
Rupert and I love each other, and want to be prudent, 
and keep our affairs to ourselves, you go and talk about 
secrets. I detest the word. Of coarse, we shan’t tell 
anybody except some old friends, like Aunt Susan and 
General Bellamy. After all, it’s our own concern.” 

“ I’m sorry, Glorinda. I understand perfectly.” 

“ It’s all quite simple. Rupert will be living in 
London, and I shall go and live in London too.” 

“ You will be marrying him later ? ” Marcella asked. 

“ Of course. The very first minute that it is possible. 
Oh what a shame that I’m not allowed to see Rupert 
until five o’clock. The dear boy ! He’ll be in raptures. 
And it's you we have to thank, you dear, clever girl. 
How brave it is of you to have such ideas.” 

But Marcella was serious again. She was regarding 
Glorinda with a new-born reverence. Every now and 
then, among the human race, men and women appear in 
whom Wish is transmuted immediately into Will, and 
Will into Act. These were the men and women of 
destiny; they marched with undismayed directness 
toVards fame or tragedy. They reasoned as little as 
a thunderbolt; they saw their object, and they made for 
it, neglecting all obstacles, and sweeping all difficulties 
imperiously aside. 

“ I was right,” Marcella reflected. “ I was right. She 
will be one of the great ones of the earth.” 

Her thoughts turned to Captain Lestrange and she 
smiled scornfully. How petty he appeared ; how petty 
all other men and women would appear, when Glorinda 
had achieved the full maturity of her power. 


CHAPTER XX 


From the Villa Stellini a cart-road leads eastward, 
along the slope of the hill. It passes first through the 
artichoke garden ; then it skirts the court-yard of the 
old Stellini farmhouse ; after that, it runs on, with olive 
orchards on either side, to meet the rugged main road 
that has from time immemorial connected Florence with 
the ancient citadel on the hill top. This main road is 
not one of the great high-roads of the world; it is no 
Appian Way or Damascus trade-route ; it is just a small 
old-fashioned road lying between walls and hedges. 
But it has carried noble traffic in its day. 

A high wall separates the olive-orchards from the old 
road, and at the place where this wall is cut through in 
order to give an exit to the farm-road, there is a massive 
pair of iron swing-gates covered with sheet-iron, to 
exclude the inquisitive glances of passers-by. Had they 
ever been locked, these iron sheeted gates would have 
been a sufficient obstacle to the curious or the dishonest. 

Within the gates, and at a distance of a hundred feet 
from them, on the lower or right hand side of the farm 
road was the feature of the estate which most attracted 
the attention of the amateur antiquary. It was the 
Roman bath, which had charmed Glorinda on the day 
after her arrival. A rectangular cistern, about six yards 
in length by four in width, had been hewn out of the solid 
rock of the hill side. The marble lining of the bath was 
intact, and at the end of the bath nearest the pathway 
was a short flight of marble steps, much worn. And from 
the rocky outcrop on the hillside flowed, through a lion’s 
head of bronze, the limpid trickle of water which had 
tempted a Roman knight, two thousand years before, 
to adorn his garden with an open-air bathing place. 

Of the works of art with which the bath might be 
supposed to have been originally decorated, not one 
163 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


164 

remained, except a marble Faun, whose features, though 
flattened and weatherworn, still contrived to retain the 
sense of mocking levity, which the sculptor had graven 
there so many centuries before. 

Glorinda, with Marcella in attendance, was strolling 
from the Villa towards the great iron gates. Neither 
spoke much. Glorinda’s spirit was full to overflowing 
with tender joy. She was dreaming of the heavenly 
moment, when she would impart her scheme of free love 
to an ecstatic Rupert. 

Marcella, for her part, was envisaging cynically the 
same dramatis personae , and her brain was forecasting 
busily the probable results. Surely, she reflected, there 
must some time come an end to Glorinda’s patience. 
No girl, however generous and warm-hearted, could be 
expected to tolerate a constant succession of rebuffs 
from a man who professed to love her. It was inevitable 
that a feeling of humiliation would ensue ; it was indeed 
a wonder that Glorinda had not already felt herself 
affronted by having her ardour so repeatedly damped 
with the cold logic of prudence. Now at last, Marcella 
hoped and believed, a crisis was approaching that must 
be final. A woman like Glorinda, who was rapidly 
acquiring a new consciousness of her own beauty and 
power, was about to offer herself to a man. More than 
that, she would be urging him, with all the warmth of a 
passionate nature, to take her maiden honour in his 
hands. 

The men whom Marcella had known in her girlhood 
had not, on the whole, been of a type in which one could 
conceive a strenuous resistance to such an offer as 
Glorinda intended. If scholastic knowledge had been 
forced too early on Marcella’s super-heated brain, and 
wild ideas on her unbalanced judgment, it was equally 
true that an early and half-secret acquaintance with the 
domestic scandals of suburban life had invested her with 
a faculty, premature and unsound, of misjudging affairs 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 165 

of the emotions. Of love, especially, her conception fell 
short. An avid passion for the realistic, combined 
sometimes with the sordid, in modern romantic literature, 
had reinforced the effect of her casual knowledge of 
intrigue. The facts, few enough in actual number, 
which she had prematurely acquired, had been inter¬ 
preted in the light of a special form of fiction. Romantic 
or not, this fictional view of life was not invariably 
wholesome ; realistic or not, it was not always true. 
The simplicity of true passion was distorted in it. 
Mingled in her mind with the aberrations of sensuality, 
love tended to become a feverish and furtive thing. 

She had a discomforting sense that there was in 
Captain Lestrange an element of character that remained 
obstinately obscure to her. He seemed to exclude her 
curiosity with a mysterious barrier, intangible and yet 
impenetrable. On the whole she judged that Captain 
Lestrange’s training would be too strong for his instincts. 
He would reject Glorinda. And if Glorinda’s love did not 
forthwith convert itself into fury and hatred, all that her 
favourite novelists had written about women was untrue. 

But suppose that Captain Lestrange yielded ? In 
that case Marcella imaged a situation that accorded 
truly with her notions of an emancipated society. She 
had met many women, actresses and others, in London, 
who maintained that a succession of love affairs was 
necessary for the deepening of one's nature, and the full 
development of one's artistic faculties. Glorinda, 
unfettered by the conventional trammels of matrimony, 
would soon weary of the crudeness of a first love. The 
intimacy with the unoriginal Captain Lestrange would 
quickly dwindle, and she would be free to pursue an 
independent career. There might, at a later stage, be 
other incidents, but these, from Marcella’s point of view, 
would be kept in their proper place ; they would not 
interfere with the great plan. They might indeed help 
it. So mused Marcella, full of vicarious immorality; 


i66 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


and at her side walked Glorinda, brimming over with 
faith and joy, Glorinda, the lavish prodigal of herself. 

When they arrived at the old Roman bath, they found 
the Marchese seated on the marble bench. He was gaz¬ 
ing downwards towards Florence. Deeply absorbed in 
meditation, he did not notice their approach. 

“ A penny for your thoughts, Marchese, ” Glorinda 
cried. 

“ My thoughts ? ” he laughed. “ How many people 
are there who take the trouble to think ? One dreams. 
One tells oneself a story. Probably, if one is young, one 
is the hero of it oneself. One’s imagination runs here 
and there.” 

” That is much jollier than thinking.” Glorinda 
rejoined. “ Tell us what your imagination was doing.” 

“He is a lively fellow, my imagination, in a place 
like this. It is hard to fix him down. At the moment 
you arrived I was saying to myself, * How irrepressible 
we humans are ! ’ Irrepressible Ttiscans, irrepressible 
Romans, irrepressible Renaissance artists. When all is 
said and done, we have an unconquerable spirit.” 

“ Splendid, splendid.” cried Glorinda enthusiastically. 
“ If one could only go to sleep, and wake up a thousand 
years hence.” 

The Marchese smiled. These trite yearnings were ever 
new and necessary. 

You hope great things ? You English are rather good 
at Utopias. Even the mechanician of to-day has a 
mechanics’ heaven in view. The aviator and the 
angel.” 

“ What is your heaven like ? ” 

” I do not disparage heaven. But just here there are 
many of the elements that make up my heaven. I am 
grateful to my spiritual progenitors. They must have 
been very good men for me to be so happy.” 

Marcella asserted herself. " As far as the spiritual 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 167 

part of you is concerned, you may be quite sure that it 
is the women whom you have to thank for it.” 

A smile of amusement flickered on the Marchese’s 
face. 

“ What is amusing you ? ” Marcella asked peremp¬ 
torily. 

“ There are various ways of regarding your suggestion. 
In the popular forms of Buddhism, a woman of great 
merit is born again as a man.” 

Marcella's scorn was immediate and vehement. 
“ A man ! Yes. I know. Or higher still, a white 
elephant. A spiritual ladder, for males only.” 

The Marchese smiled again. The differentiation of 
the sexes had been a curious phenomenon. Some thought 
it was incomplete and would be carried farther. Others, 
without predicating any definite physiological change, 
desired a sort of integration. It was a curious specula¬ 
tion and not one which he, an anatomist, would discuss 
with a young woman. 

“ This is my favourite spot,” he said. 

He pointed down the hill towards the domes and towers 
of the Italian city. 

" And consider this,” he indicated the Roman bath. 
” Is there a more lovely place in the world ? ” 

They talked of Florence, of the distant monasteries on 
the hilltops, of the glistening Amo that wound its way 
to the sea. 

Glorinda looked longingly at the pellucid waters of 
the Roman bath. 

" Marcella ! ” she cried, " we must bathe here.” 

" It looks cold,” said Marcella, with a shudder of 
aversion. 

" In summer,” continued the Marchese, “ it is perfect. 
Even at this season, on a bright afternoon, when the sun 
has warmed the water, it is hardly less perfect.” 

He looked at Glorinda. She was his ideal of beauty. 
She was to him the splendour of the Renaissance. How 


168 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

was it that so Pagan a thing as the Renaissance had never 
had a goddess ? He had a clear and entrancing picture 
in his mind of Glorinda, the young goddess, her golden 
locks reflecting the sunshine, descending the marble 
steps into the crystal water. 

“ I think you should bathe,” he said. “ It would be 
suitable.” 

Glorinda laughed gaily. 

” Look at that battered old faun,” she exclaimed. 
“ Doesn’t he look wicked ? ” 

The Marchese smiled. 

“ He at any rate will be happy if you bathe here. He 
has the old Pagan memories. He will see life again as 
he saw it long ago.” 

" Of course, Marcella, we must bathe here. It would 
be a sin not to.” 

The Marchese cast a glance at Marcella, who stood there 
unsmiling. 

“ She is the little Mephistopheles, that one,” he 
reflected. He studied the Faun more closely. There 
was that in the Faun that appealed to him and to every 
human being. The Faun was older than Rome or 
Tuscany, older than the Garden of Eden. He was 
peeping round the trunk of a tree, and laughing, when 
Eve gave Adam the apple. The Faun was nature, the 
ineradicable. An Empire fell into fragments and the 
Faun flitted among the ruins. The Faun was older than 
the ruins, but he was also younger than those heady 
thoughts that simmered in men's minds until of a sudden 
they reached boiling point and revolution. The Faun 
could laugh at all alike, whether new or old. But the 
Marchese was one of those who hope. He had it in his 
mind that the Faun, all alone in his woody brake, started 
uneasily at a certain note of music that recurred with 
each new civilisation. In the church bells, in the cries 
of the mob, in the noise of battle, was there not the 
insurgent note of a youthfulness that feared nothing ? 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 169 

The world grew old; he danced in its ruins, and lo 1 
of a sudden, the world was young again. Would the 
battle never cease ? Would not this youngness, that is 
bom again and again in the human spirit, from millen¬ 
nium to millennium, some day find the Faun old and 
tired and humble ? 

Looking again at Glorinda, the Marchese saw in her 
the new spirit of youth, irrepressible, fearless, buoyant. 
She was the new generation, that puzzling arrogant 
generation, that would be served. And Marcella, yes, 
there was Faun in her, tor all her city ways and sophisti¬ 
cated brain. With those black restless glancing eyes, 
that slim elusive frame, she was the imp of mockery, 
for all her strenuousness, and of mischief, for all her 
love. He looked from her to the Faun, from the Faun to 
Glorinda. There was an impulse in him to drive Mar¬ 
cella away. She was the accidental, the dangerous ; she 
was the incalculable means by which things happened, 
when there was no cause why they should happen. 


CHAPTER XXI 

The clear notes of a bugle rang out from a Piazza higher 
up on the hill side. 

" Soldiers," cried Glorinda. 

" Fascisti," amended the Marchese. 

" The Black Shirts ? " 

"Yes, about two hundred of them. They passed up 
the road an hour ago. I have friends there. I spoke 
with them." 

" I should love to see them. Let us go up there. 
Marcella, will you come ? " 

The Marchese explained. 

" The bugle call that you heard was what in the English 
army you call the Fall In. Presently they march back 
to Florence. They will pass by these gates, and you will 
see them." 

" Oh, come along, Marcella. Isn’t it thrilling ? " 

Marcella seemed unimpressed, but she moved with the 
others to the gateway, where they stood waiting. 
Looking up towards the hilltop, they caught sight from 
time to time of a column of men, winding like a dark 
river down the tortuous road. Soon they heard the 
measured left-right of trained men. 

“ I don’t know anything that I love so much as that 
sound of marching," Glorinda declared. " I think the 
tramp of a regiment along the road is the most stirring 
thing in the world. It is like a great heart beating." 

"You prefer infantry to cavalry ? " the Marchese 
asked. 

Glorinda hesitated. 

" I don’t know that I can honestly say that. There 
are the guns, too." 

" They are all magnificent," said the Marchese smiling. 
" For me, I am a poor volunteer surgeon. Give me my 
ambulances." 

A wave of appreciation passed over Glorinda’s face. 

170 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 171 

“ Oh yes, Marchese, they are the finest things of all.” 

"To each his own glory. Ours is not spectacular. 
But listen.” 

The Black Shirts were singing their famous chorus. 

" What is that they are singing ? ” 

"It is their marching song, Giovinezza. You know 
a little Italian. Giovinezza means youth. The song 
runs this way: 

* Giovinezza, Giovinezza, 

Primavera di bellezza/ 

It means * Youth, youth, spring time of beauty/ It 
is not military, you see, nor even political. It is about 
j'outh and beauty.” 

" Are they young themselves ? ” Marcella asked 
sourly. 

" Very young. You shall see.” 

" Then the young do have a chance in this country ? ” 
Marcella asked. 

The Marchese remarked her bitterness, and drew his 
conclusions. 

" These young men are not Bolshevists. The business 
of the Black Shirts is to fight Bolshevism.” 

Marcella shrugged her shoulders. She welcomed 
contention at all times. On some later occasion it would 
give her pleasure to deal with this worn-out aristocratic 
fop with the waxed moustaches. 

Marching at ease, rejoicing in the sunshine, smoking 
cigarettes, laughing and chattering gaily, the column of 
Black Shirts turned the comer of the road and came into 
view. Their step had fallen loose, but as the column 
rounded the comer, their commanding officer caught 
sight of the three persons standing in the gateway, and 
he called to his men to march to attention. The step 
again became crisp ; talking in the ranks ceased, and 
cigarettes were thrown away. 

" That is my young friend, Count Varenna, marching 
at the head.” 


i 7 2 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

“It is quite an aristocratic movement," Marcella 
challenged. “ I thought it was merely bourgeois." 

“ Neither aristocratic nor bourgeois," the Marchese 
retorted. “ It is simply anti-Bolshevik. Had it not 
been for them, we should have had a second Russia in 
Italy." 

He looked sideways at Marcella, and continued : 

“You perhaps admire Lenin ? " 

“ I do,” she replied defiantly. 

“ Really, Marcella,” Glorinda broke in. “ I'm. begin¬ 
ning to think you’re a freak. Don’t believe her, 
Marchese." 

The head of the column of fours came abreast of the 
onlookers. Over the leading four fluttered a small 
banner of black silk, borne aloft on a slender silver rod. 
The Commanding Officer greeted the Marchese and 
stopped to speak to him. 

“ My dear Marchese," he began fluently and affably. 
Then his eyes caught Glorinda, and his words were 
arrested on his lips. Suddenly overwhelmed by the 
sight of rare beauty, a seizure to which all Italians are 
specially prone, he was struck dumb. The Marchese 
laughed his amusement at his friend’s sudden deprivation 
of the power of speech. 

“ Shall I present you ? " he asked. 

The Count saluted. His face wore an expression of the 
most intent seriousness. He gazed a moment or two, 
and still remained at a loss. He must not stop here. 
He must stay with his men. And yet it was difficult 
and awkward to move on without saying something. 
His hands went up in a mechanical gesture towards his 
men. A junior officer saw the movement, and inter¬ 
preted it promptly to suit his own wishes. The order 
rang out. “ Fascisti, halt ! Front ! Stand at ease. 
Stand easy." 

“ I wonder what it is all about," Marcella said de¬ 
risively to Glorinda. “ At any rate they’re young. It's 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


173 

the next best thing to being women. Why can’t women 
do this ? ” 

A whisper went along the ranks. 

“ That is the Marchese Calderari. He is one of us. 
Who is the tall young lady ? English ? American ? ” 

“ Glorinda,” Marcella pursued vehemently, “ ask 
him what it’s all about ? ” 

Glorinda ! The name was caught up, and passed part 
of the way along the ranks. Glorinda ! A strange name, 
but a fine one, and, by God, suitable. The men nodded 
their quick appreciation. 

Glorinda addressed the Count. 

“ My friend wishes to know what you propose to do.” 

“ Signorina, we have saved Italy once, and we shall 
save her again.” 

“ Fine talk,” said Marcella. “ Ask him what the 
women of Italy are doing.” 

The Count laughed. 

“ Our Italian women are very practical. We preserve 
the women’s homes for them, and they stay at home and 
mind them.” 

Glorinda exclaimed joyously : 

“You were asking for women, Marcella. Here they 
are.” 

Between the first and second section of Black Shirts 
was a row of four little girls, dressed in black and adorned 
with flowers. Each carried a silken bannerette. Glor¬ 
inda ran to them and picked up the smallest of them, a 
tiny Tuscan maiden with deep dark eyes and olive 
complexion, and a square-set jaw that went oddly with 
her chubby features. Lifting the little girl in her strong 
hands, Glorinda cried out : 

“ Oh, what a little darling ! Look at the great deep 
eyes and the solemn face. Carissima, what do you call 
yourself ? ” 

“ Lucia,” the little girl replied shyly. 

“ And the others. What are their names ? ” 


i 7 4 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

The little girl pointed them out one by one and named 
them. 

“ This is Maria, and this is Bianca, and this is 
Giulietta.” 

“ What pretty names ! My name is Glorinda. Does 
it please you ? ” 

The little girl smiled shyly, and leaning away from 
Glorinda towards her companions, said, 

“ She names herself Glorinda/' 

" Glorinda ! ” they all repeated gazing up at her with 
the intensest admiration. 

“ But I have two names. Glorinda Mary. Mary is 
Maria.” 

The little girl whose name was Maria flamed with 
excitement. 

“ Maria ! She is mine. Lucia, get down. It is my 
turn,” and she pulled vehemently at Lucia’s feet. 

Glorinda put down Lucia, and took Maria into her 
arms. Maria wriggled herself into a comfortable posi¬ 
tion, and put her arms around Glorinda's neck. 

“ But you are strong,” the little girl laughed, when she 
felt Glorinda’s arms round her. 

“ I too, I too,” the others clamoured, and they were 
one after another raised and encircled by the strong 
arms. 

The Black Shirts looked at the picture, and loved it 
and laughed and nodded. And the name Glorinda 
rippled along the ranks. 

“ And what are you doing with the Black Shirts, 
Lucia ? ” 

" Soon we march to Rome,” replied the little atom 
gravely. 

“ And what are you going to do in Rome ? ” 

" We are going to save Italy.” 

“ But how splendid. I wish I could come with you.” 

The Count broke out rapturously: 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


175 

“ Ah Signorina, if you only could 1 My Tuscans would 
be the proudest men in Italy.’* 

The Marchese said laughingly, 

“You want Miss Swift to march on Rome with you ? *’ 

“ My God, yes. Our women are not yet leaders. 
But you, Signorina, why not ? ’’ 

The ranks, intensely interested, were gradually losing 
their formation and closing in. The portion of the road 
in front of the iron gate was already packed. 

“ She reminds us of our song,” said the Count plead¬ 
ingly to the Marchese. “ You can see that. She is our 
song, is she not ? She is Giovinezza. Primavera di 
bellezza.” 

The significance of the Count's pleadings was readily 
caught by the alert minds of the Florentines. Giovin¬ 
ezza, Primavera, Bellezza; the words rustled through 
the throng. The song was begun, at,first by a few voices 
in the rear, and then the entire body of men joined in. 

“ Giovinezza, Giovinezza, 

Primavera di bellezza, 

Nel dolore e ne l'ebbrezza 
II tuo canto esultera ! ’’ 

And at the end came the united warcry. 

“ Fascisti, Fascisti, Fascisti ! ’’ 

But some of them shouted “ Glorinda ! " and the 
others laughed and took up the cry. 

The Count turned again to Glorinda. 

“ You see, Signorina, what you can do if you wish. 
You have captured their hearts already." 

But Glorinda was thinking of her approaching meeting 
with Rupert. She smiled and shook her head. 

“You are joking, Signor. But even if you were 
serious I could not come." 

“ Is it impossible ? " he urged. “ I can give you a 
horse, a most beautiful charger." 

“ Quite impossible. But I wish you good fortune in 
your advance on Rome." 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


176 

“ Will you wish my men good luck ? Yes ? Please 
wait one moment/* 

He gave the order to fall in, and the Black Shirts 
resumed their original places in the ranks. 

“ My Italian is not very good,” Glorinda laughed. 

” Oh but I assure you it is beautiful. It is perfect/* 

Glorinda drew herself up to her full height, smiled, 
and looked along the ranks, and addressed the men 
in the simple Italian phrases which she had at her 
command. 

“ Fascisti, I wish to go with you to Rome, but it is 
impossible. Rome is the most beautiful city in the 
world. No. Iam wrong. Florence is the most beauti¬ 
ful city in the world. I love Florence, and the Floren¬ 
tines, and the Fascisti. I pray God for your success. 
Addio ! Fascisti ! A Roma ! ** 

The Count saluted, and gave an order. His men 
turned into column of march. But all eyes flashed to 
the right as the Black Shirts passed Glorinda. 

The chorus broke out again, and at the end of it came 
from the throat of every Black Shirt in the Tuscan 
column an enthusiastic laughing shout of 

“ Glorinda, Glorinda, Glorinda ! ** 

Glorinda’s eyes glistened. 

“ They are dear boys,” she said. 

" They are doing men's work,” said the Marchese. 

But Marcella, as she turned away said to herself, 

" I knew it. I knew it from the first. She has the 
power. Never, never while I live, shall she sacrifice 
herself to a man.** 


CHAPTER XXII 


" Now I'm going to see Rupert," said Glorinda, and she 
led her little procession of two worshippers back to the 
Villa. The Marchese and Marcella felt themselves 
somewhat in the position of satellites to a new planet. 
Now and again the Marchese cast a furtively hostile 
glance at Marcella. More deeply than ever before was. 
he seized by the assurance that Glorinda’s beauty was of 
the type that drags circumstance unresisting in its train. 
He had lived long, and his arithmetic of life applied itself 
in great spans of ten, twenty, thirty years. In ten 
years, or twenty, what could this magnificent girl not 
accomplish ? Every great career has its starting point. 
He had an increasing conviction that he was being 
privileged to be present at the initiation of a career of 
which the clamour and splendour would still be astonish¬ 
ing the world when he was no longer there to be moved 
by it. 

Glancing sideways at Marcella, he found himself 
fearing in her the Mephistopheles, who might wreck the 
fair career at its outset, by some betrayal or misguiding. 

Marcella, concealing with difficulty her excitement, 
accompanied the other two in silence. She was resolute 
to have a word in private with Glorinda after the Mar¬ 
chese had been shaken off. Arrived near the Villa, the 
Marchese left them and turned down the steps to the 
terrace. Marcella, her voice quivering with the emotion 
aroused in her by the demonstration of Glorinda's power 
over men, caught her friend as she began to run into the 
house. 

“ Glorinda, wait ! Just one moment ! You see what 
you did with those men. I told you before that you had 
that power. I have told you so from the beginning. 
You won't let any man get the better of you, will you ? " 
she pleaded. 


*77 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


178 

Glorinda listened impatiently, all eagerness to be 
gone. But Marcella, still clutching her arm, pursued 
fervidly: 

“ You mustn't let yourself become any man’s property. 
You are far too great for that. Don't for heaven’s sake 
let yourself get tied up. Glorinda, I implore you.” 

Glorinda laughed and broke away. 

“I'm not going to get tied up, of course. That’s 
precisely what I am going to explain to Rupert.” 

In the drawing-room were Miss Lancaster and General 
Bellamy. Glorinda greeted them gaily as she ran 
through. 

“ We’ve had such fun. I might have been a colonel 
of Black Shirts. Fancy me being a colonel like dear 
Daddy. I’ve no time to tell you all about it now. I'm 
going to see Rupert.” 

As she was leaving the room, she turned in the doorway 
and said to them, 

“ I'll have something most thrilling to tell you when 
I come down again. Something about Rupert and me.” 

“ What can it be, my dear ? ” Miss Lancaster asked 
in alarm. 

“You may guess and you may guess. But you’ll 
never know, until I’ve told you.” 

She waved her hand to them and passed on up the 
stairs. The two old people looked at each other. 

“ I told you she would be startling you,” said the 
General. “ You can prepare for cavalry, as I said.” 

“ What will she be doing next ? ” the lady sighed 
plaintively. "I am sure it’s bad enough her always 
being in and out of his room. I oughtn’t to allow that.” 

“ It’s her dear Daddy, as she calls him.” 

“ Oh, quite so,” Miss Lancaster concurred with a shade 
of impatience. “ But I can’t see how that helps me.” 

“ My dear Susan, you must take a broader view of 
things. Now consider Captain Lestrange. I confess I 
had a prejudice against him at first. I thought he was 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


179 

supercilious and a bit of a young ass. But he’s neither 
an ass nor a snob. He's a fine soldier and the soul of 
honour. It wouldn’t matter if a score of innocent girls 
kept going in and out of his room.” 

Miss Lancaster demurred. 

“ No, Jacky, you go too far. There are limits. I 
admit that he’s all that you say. But young girls are 
often fools. They have to be protected against their own 
inexperience. If it was any girl in the world but 
Glorinda, I wouldn’t tolerate it. In her case I simply 
have to admit that she's too strong for me.” 

“ There’s not the slightest necessity for you to worry 
your head about it. What I’m telling you is to consider 
the character of the two persons concerned. You’ll 
see that your little conventions don’t amount to a row 
of pins. Let them go. Use your reasoning power.” 

Miss Lancaster sighed and folded her hands in her 
lap. 

” Reasoning powers ? What nonsense ! She’s too 
strong for me, and I must just wait, and see what she 
does.” 

The General’s small eyes twinkled under his bushy 
grey eyebrows. He did not wish to distress his old 
friend, and therefore he did not speak aloud the reflection 
which he made inwardly. 

“ That young woman is on the war path. She’ll 
come back with young Lestrange’s scalp, or I’ll eat my 
boots.” 

Glorinda ran joyously up the stairs, and tapped at 
Rupert’s door. 

“ Come in.” 

Glorinda entered. Rupert was lying on his couch. 

“ Forgive me for not getting up. The Marchese 
prefers me not to.” 

" Any temperature to-day ? ” 

" Perfectly normal, thank you.” 

She came to the side of his couch and knelt down, and 


i8o THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

they kissed each other. She remained for a time bend¬ 
ing over him with her arms closed gently round him. 

“ I've just had such fun.” 

“ What was it ? ” 

" The Black Shirts were passing.” 

“ Yes, I heard them marching and singing.” 

“ They stopped at the farm gates, and I made them 
a little speech and wished them luck. They are going 
to march on Rome. They wanted me to ride at the head 
of their battalion.” 

“ Ripping. Have you promised ? ” 

“ No, of course not. I am your nurse. Would it 
have been allowed ? ” 

“ There’s nothing to stop it, if they wanted it. You 
could have been their mascot. All regiments have 
mascots.” 

" Would your English regiment have allowed it ? ” 

" We’d have loved it.” 

" If I were your regimental mascot, how should I be 
dressed ? ” 

“ Rifle green, I suppose.” 

" How jolly ! That would suit me wouldn’t it.” 

" Topping ! ” 

She was silent for a little. Then- 

" Rupert ! ” 

“ What is it, angel ? ” 

” Our troubles are all over.” 

He looked at her questioningly, and she proceeded : 
" You don’t like my friend Marcella, do you ? ” 

“ I’ve never said so.” 

" I know you don’t like her. All the same, Marcella's 
the genius who has found the solution to all our 
difficulties.” 

Rupert’s hopes were not greatly aroused. 

“And what is the solution ? ” 

But she would not tell him at once. It was a lovely 



THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 181 

surprise that she had for him. She must tease him a 
little. 

“ It’s the heavenly simplicity of it that I love/' 

Rupert, a little amused, and very intensely loving 
her, was at the same time not to be thrown off his,guard 
by any scheme emanating from Miss Tucker. 

“ Well ? ” he asked. 

“ It’s just this, Rupert. We shall do nothing. We 
shall stay as we are." 

Rupert seemed puzzled. 

“ But that was what we had already decided, wasn’t 
it? ” 

“No. This is something quite different. I’ll 
explain it to you. You won't marry me without your 
uncle's consent ? ” 

“ No.” 

“ Horrid obstinate boy. I hate you. And you won’t 
marry me secretly ? ” 

“ No.” 

“ Still more horrid. Still more obstinate. I hate you 
like anything. Well then, we needn’t marry at all.” 

“ Not for some time yet, I’m afraid.” 

She drew back a little and looked smilingly into his 
eyes. 

“ Dear old stupid, I don’t believe you understand even 
now.” 

The little flicker of tender amusement died out of his 
face. All that remained was sheer perplexity. 

“ Listen, darling,” she said. “ I shall explain it all 
to you, just as Marcella did to me. To begin with, what 
do you think of divorce ? ” 

“ It’s a pretty rotten sort of thing.” 

“ Of course it is. It’s a horrid, detestable thing. But 
I didn't mean that. What I meant was, do you think 
that divorce ought to be made easier ? ” 

" I’m not sure. I should doubt it.” 


i 82 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

" Oh why, Rupert ? When people have ceased to love 
each other, oughtn’t they to separate ? ” 

“ I expect it’s rather a cat and dog existence if they 
don’t.” 

“ But there are cases in which divorce is right ? ” 

" Catholics don’t have it.” 

" But you’re not a Cathohc.” 

“No. Well, I agree that divorce is permissible 
sometimes.” 

“ That's all I wanted you to say. If divorce is 
ever excusable, then the marriage ceremony isn’t 
inviolable.” 

“ I suppose not.” 

“ What I mean is, that marriage isn’t one of those 
absolutely sacred things that can't be set aside. I’ll 
explain some more. You can be baptized, but you 
can't have your baptism undone. You can be confirmed, 
and nobody can undo your confirmation.. But a marriage 
can be undone.” 

“ That's so, I suppose. But if it comes to that, there 
needn’t be a religious ceremony at all.” 

“ Now that’s very open-minded of you, Rupert. All 
one need have is a civil ceremony, and that is nothing 
but a contract.” 

“ It’s a thing that people do, if they want to live 
together.” 

She exclaimed triumphantly. 

“ Rupert, that proves it. You’ve come to the point 
ever so much quicker than I thought you would. We 
want to live together. We don't want any silly old 
contract. Rupert, do you want a contract ? ” 

Rupert looked into her tender and honest eyes. Then 
he bowed his head, unable to speak, and even for a time 
too bewildered to think. But while Glorinda was waiting 
for his answer, he found that his mind was beginning 
to search for a way out, a compromise. 

“ Well, Rupert ? ” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 183 

Pressed for an answer, and anxious to gain time, he 
said: 

“You talk about living together. Where would you 
be living ? ” 

“ Wherever you were, of course. Here or in London.” 

“ We could often see each other, couldn't we ? ” 

“ No, no, dearest. None of your wretched subter¬ 
fuges. You’re going to be laid up for months and 
months. Then you're going to take up a new and 
difficult occupation, and you will have to do your very 
best. You must have a wife. A wife, Rupert. Not a 
girl whom you will meet occasionally. We two must live 
together. Always. Day and night. Why, Rupert, 
we love each other.” 

He looked again into her clear honest eyes. When at 
last he was able to speak, he folded her in his arms and 
said: 

“ Dearest, I think you are the best and kindest and 
most beautiful girl that ever lived. You are the noblest 
and most innocent woman in the whole world. I love 
you, darling. You must never doubt that. I would 
willingly die to save you from pain. But I cannot do 
what you ask me.” 

Glorinda drew back a little. 

“ Why can't you ? ” she asked. 

“ It is impossible. I couldn’t treat you like that.” 

Glorinda disengaged herself from his arms. She rose 
from her knees and stood looking at him for some time, 
puzzled. 

“ I thought you loved me,” she pleaded, all over¬ 
whelmed and bewildered. 

“ Glorinda,” he said helplessly, and held out his arms 
to her. 

“ What does that mean ? ” she asked. “ Are you 
going to take me ? ” 

" Dearest, only listen, ” he began. 

But as he spoke he saw her expression change. The 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


184 

shock of his unexpected rejection of her, the humiliation 
of the rebuff, paralysed her, and she stood there, her face 
pale, her hands clenched. Rupert made an effort to rise 
from his couch. But she threw out both hands as if 
repelling him. 

“ Glorinda," he entreated again, holding out his arms 
to her, “ listen just for one moment/' 

But he saw her face flush suddenly with a wave of 
fierce indignation and contempt. Her eyes flashed. 

“ Rupert, you coward," she cried, and she swept out 
of the room. 



I 


CHAPTER XXIII 


Rupert leaped from his couch and ran to the door and 
opened it. He was in time to see Glorinda flying down 
the stairs ; the Marchese was standing on one side to 
let her pass. The Marchese turned and looked after 
her, until she disappeared. Then he looked up at the 
youth standing in the doorway. To all appearance placid 
and incurious, the Marchese ascended the steps and 
spoke to Rupert. 

" You will return to your couch, and I will examine 
you.’* 

Rupert obeyed the order docilely, and submitted to 
the Marchese’s investigations. He answered the usual 
questions with mechanical correctness. But while he 
was doing so, his thoughts were in a whirlwind of 
consternation. 

“ The poor girl, the poor darling innocent,” he kept 
thinking. “ I must see her again. I must write to her 
at once.” 

Then in a sudden burst of rage he broke out aloud, 

** That devil. Miss Tucker ! ” 

The Marchese looked up from his examination of 
Rupert's ribs. 

“ I have always thought so,” he said gently, and he 
resumed his work. 

Rupert’s strength and self-control were no longer 
sufficient to enable him to keep his trouble to himself. 
The Marchese continued to pass his fine sensitive fingers 
softly over Rupert’s side. He was aware that a con¬ 
fidence awaited him, as soon as his work was over. 

“ I have finished. You are doing very well. Now tell 
me your trouble.” 

“ It is that devil, that devil.” 

" I know your devil.” 

185 


i86 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


He fixed Rupert with a steadying gaze. 

“ Take your time. You are excited. Say nothing 
for a minute. Keep silent, until you are ready.” 

He took his patient's wrist in his hand, and the firm 
grasp restored Rupert's devastated nerves and temper. 

“ You know how it is between Miss Swift and me ? " 

“ You love her ? " 

“ Good God, how can I tell you how I love her ? ” 

“ She is very angry, but you still love her ? ” 

” I love her a thousand times better than ever before.” 

“ She loves you still.” 

” Does she ? I wish I knew for certain.” 

“ I tell you so now. She loves you. Oh, certainly. 
I saw her face. She is furious, but she loves you, most 
assuredly.” 

“ I must tell you what happened.” 

“ Yes, tell me.” 

“ Miss Swift is to marry me. My uncle will not allow 
the marriage for four years yet. But Miss Swift is 
determined to be with me always.” 

” I have heard that already from others.” 

“ First Miss Swift proposed that we should marry in 
defiance of my uncle.” 

“ I have heard that too. You refused. You were 
wrong.” 

Rupert would have protested, but the Marchese held 
up his hand. 

” It is of no use to discuss that now.” 

“ Then she proposed a secret marriage.” 

“ And you refused. Again you were wrong.” 

” This moment she has proposed to me that we should 
live together without being married.” 

” That was Miss Tucker's idea, was it not? ” 

“ Yes, Miss Swift thinks that Miss Tucker is a wonder¬ 
ful genius for having that idea.” 

“ She is an evil genius certainly. Well, my dear 
young friend, you refused again.” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 187 

“ Of course I refused. No man in the world would 
have been such a cad as to accept.” 

“ And she is very angry ? ” 

“ You saw her.” 

“ What did she say ? ” 

“ She said I was a coward.” 

" Why ? ” 

“ I suppose because I wouldn’t face the opinion of the 
world. She wouldn’t listen to my reasons.” 

The corners of the Marchese’s mouth twitched 
downwards. 

“ Well,” he said, “ are you not ? ” 

" Am I not what ? ” 

“ A coward.” 

Rupert looked him straight in the eyes and replied, 

“ No, I am not.” 

“You have never thought of your own position in the 
affair ? Only of hers ? ” 

“ I can swear to that by everything I hold sacred.” 

“ Then it is for Miss Swift that you fear ? You fear 
that when she discovers what opinion people have of her, 
she will be ashamed ? But I assure you that she will not 
be ashamed.” 

Rupert received the statement doubtfully. The 
Marchese continued, 

“ Perhaps you fear that she will blame you when she 
finds out ? ” 

“ She would have every right to do so.” 

“ I assure you again that she will not blame you in the 
slightest at any time, now or later.” 

“ I think that's quite possible. But it wouldn't 
affect my guilt.” 

“ Perhaps you fear that she may be-cast out of decent 
? ** 

" Well, wouldn’t she ? ” 

“ Nowadays ? A young lady of Miss Swift’s beauty ? 
She would be a nine days wonder, that is all. Or 


i88 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

perhaps you think that your uncle, Sir Robert, will 
be terribly scandalized ? ” 

Rupert hesitated, and the Marchese smiled subtly 
and remarked : 

“ It is not easy to scandalize an old man." 

Rupert broke out. 

“ Marchese, you're all wrong, hopelessly wrong. It's 
an impossible thing for any decent man to do. It's 
perfectly useless your suggesting otherwise.” 

The Marchese shrugged his shoulders. 

“ I await your reasons.” 

“ Think of the feelings of her friends.” 

“You are prepared to disregard the opinion of others, 
and presumably their feelings go with their opinions.” 

“For myself,” he protested, “ not for her.” 

“ Later on, you propose to marry her.” 

“ Yes.” 

“ I think you will. Indeed, I am sure you will, 
whatever happens between now and then.” 

“You don't realize it, Marchese. The stigma, the 
humiliation when she awakes to her true position.” 

“ I do not see anyone despising Miss Swift.” 

“ The malicious tongues.” 

“ Where there is no concealment, there is no malice. 
Envy, perhaps, but not malice.” 

“ I can't discuss it with you ; it is out of the question.” 

The Marchese nodded as if to accept the verdict. But 
he resumed his attack immediately on another front. 

“You were speaking of Miss Tucker,” he said. “You 
called her a devil. I agree with you very sincerely in 
thinking that Miss Tucker is a dangerous influence.” 

Rupert nodded his acquiescence. 

The Marchese continued: 

“ Miss Tucker’s influence must be broken. You are 
the only one who can do that. Miss Tucker is going away 
in a few days, and Miss Swift must stay here. You can 
keep her here, and you must do so.” 


189 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

" How can I ? ” 

“ Easily. You can agree to Miss Swift’s proposal." 

" Never." 

“ You-can at any rate temporize." 

" In such a matter, never." 

“ Is it a question," the Marchese suggested, " of your 
personal honour ? " 

" Entirely." 

“ Treating it then as a matter of your personal honour, 
will you kindly tell me exactly how it strikes you." 

" My personal honour forbids me to put a girl in such 
a position. Still more does it forbid me to take 
advantage of her ignorance, when she offers to put her¬ 
self in that position." 

"You don’t admit that she has any right to think and 
act for herself ? " 

" In the circumstances, no." 

The Marchese dropped that aspect of the question. 
Presently he resumed, but with a certain diffidence. 

" You are now going to laugh at me," he said. " I 
am a man of science. But there is another thing which 
I worship besides science. It is Beauty. Miss Swift 
is supremely beautiful. She is like a vision of a great 
artist. She is of a distinction that appears only once 
in many generations. But she is more than beautiful. 
Her sweetness touched my heart almost before I became 
aware of her beauty. Our Italian poet said : 

“Mi distilla 

Nel cuore lo dolce che nacque di essa.” 

“ I know that she is remarkably beautiful." 

" Perhaps you do not realize how exceptionally beauti¬ 
ful she is. She is historically beautiful. There has 
been none like her since Venice was at its prime. She is 
the consummation of the beauty of centuries. Also 
she has character. She sees with direct vision and she 
acts. She is still a child in experience. But she will 
be a great woman. In my opinion a very great woman. 


igo THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

It is your fate to have attracted her. You are the 
proudest man in the world. Is it not so ? " 

Rupert assented silently. For a time the Marchese 
seemed unable to proceed. Apparently he had difficulty 
in leading his discourse to its proper climax. He rose 
to his feet and walked to and fro restlessly. Then he 
stopped abruptly and faced the young Englishman. 

“ If you wish to laugh at me, you can laugh. But I 
tell you what I feel to be the truth. Such beauty as 
Miss Swift's is an affair of destiny. Ah 1 it is difficult 
for me to express myself so as to convince you. But I 
tell you that such supreme beauty is always linked with 
fate. It is never insignificant. It ends definitely in 
triumph or in tragedy, and while it lasts it rules every¬ 
thing that comes within its sphere. Miss Swift is only 
on the threshold. But even now, she is already one of 
those who must be obeyed. My dear young friend, you 
must do as she tells you. You must obey." 

Regarding him unflinchingly with his clear blue eyes 
Rupert replied, 

“ I will not." 

The Marchese rose to his feet, walked to the 
window, and looked out. After a few minutes silence 
he turned to his patient. In an unconsciously dramatic 
manner he folded his arms, fixed the young man 
with his eyes, and began : 

“ Captain Lestrange, I remember your once telling 
me that you felt that you were unimportant in this 
atfair. I can only make my case strong by emphasising 
that aspect of it. When you confessed that you felt 
unimportant, you were thinking of the Signorina 
Glorinda’s feelings, of her self-respect. Your mind was 
full of your English conventional ideas. You were 
anxious to spare her sensibilities. You did not wish 
people to think her unmaidenly. Ah ! stupid, stupid. 
She has no such sensibilities. She is a lover, solely 
and simply a lover. At present she can see that, and 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 191 

she can see nothing else in the world. All her life long 
she will disregard the rules that others have made. All 
her life long she will go in a straight line to what she 
desires. She fears nothing. As her father was, so will 
she be. She is not selfish, no ! She has a great heart. 
Trust her. Believe me, it is the only way. Obey her 
orders, even if they outrage your cherished conventions. 
Trust her and all will go rightly. You are her first lover, 
and she will always love you. But by everything that 
you value in life, abandon yourself to her will. Be her 
slave and you will be her master. Ah ! I can see what 
you are thinking now. You are thinking of those men 
who are the husbands of opera singers, men who are real 
cyphers. But you are not that sort of man. You are 
an English gentleman and a soldier. You would fear 
to derogate ? You would not be the consort of Elizabeth 
or Cleopatra ? Ah ! folly, folly. Throw yourself away, 
I tell you. Be hers. The world will be all for her, and 
she will be all for you. Courage, courage ! Or is it 
true as she said, that you are a coward ? ” 

“I am not a blackguard,” said Rupert quietly, and 
the Marchese knew that the conversation was at an 
end. 


CHAPTER XXIV 


Miss Lancaster and General Bellamy were still in the 
drawing-room when Glorinda burst in upon them. 

“Oh he is impossible ! " 

“ Dearest ! Who is impossible ? ” her aunt asked. 

“ Rupert, of course. He’s mad. I cannot endure 
his behaving like this. I am going to write to his uncle. 
No, I won't write. I’ll go to him. I’ll make him use 
his authority over Rupert. I will not have Rupert 
ruining his life in this way.’’ 

“ What has Rupert been doing, dearest ? ’’ her aunt 
enquired meekly. 

“ Oh, you won’t believe me. It’s incredible. He 
won’t agree to our living together.’’ 

General Bellamy’s jaw dropped. Miss Lancaster 
showed a momentary horror. But she quickly realized 
that she must have misunderstood her niece and she 
recovered herself with a sigh of relief, almost of amuse¬ 
ment. She permitted herself a glance at the General, 
and a slightly compassionate smile at his obvious 
consternation. 

“ I didn’t quite catch what you said, Glorinda.’’ 

Glorinda repeated indignantly. 

“ He won’t agree to our living together.’’ 

The old people stole glances at each other ; seemingly 
they had heard correctly. Miss Lancaster’s well-trained 
sense of propriety worked along the same lines as Rupert's 
and produced a similar result. 

“ Of course you would be seeing a great deal of each 
other.’’ 

“ O Aunt Susan, how tiresome you are. That's 
exactly what Rupert said. I don't mean that at all. 
I mean to live with him, to be his wife. He wants a 
wife. He must have a wife.” 

After a few natural incoherencies her aunt replied, 
192 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


193 

“ I thought you had already agreed not to marry.” 

“ I didn’t agree. Rupert did. If Sir Robert chooses 
to make ridiculous rules for his business, I suppose we 
must obey them. So we shan’t marry. But I don’t 
see why Rupert’s health should be ruined on that ac¬ 
count. I shall go and see Sir Robert again. You 
needn’t come with me this time, Auntie.” 

General Bellamy had recovered his self-possession. 
He looked hard at the girl. Then he clenched his first 
and thumped his knee, not too violently. 

“ Gad ! ” he said inwardly, “ the girl's a stunner. 
She’ll carry her point yet.” 

He put himself in Sir Robert’s position, that of an 
old man, approached by this very lovely girl with a 
proposal that she should be the mistress of his nephew, 
in order to avoid one of the firm’s regulations. The 
General could not conceive that any resistance would be 
effective against a scheme so limpidly ingenuous, so 
appallingly sincere. He foresaw a victory, foot, horse 
and guns, for Glorinda, and he laughed boisterously. 

Miss Lancaster, who had followed a different train of 
thought, was horrified at what she could not but con¬ 
sider a vulgar demonstration of mirth at the contempla¬ 
tion of an improper situation. 

“ General Bellamy ! ” she remonstrated. 

But the General was unrepentant. He wanted to 
encourage the girl, to assure her that her new scheme 
offered the best prospect of success of any she had yet 
proposed. Indeed he had it on the tip of his tongue to 
explain to her the reasons for which, in his opinion, it 
would help her cause, if she threw herself, heart and soul, 
into this new attack on Sir Robert. But an objection 
occurred to him and he restrained himself. He saw that 
if Glorinda was to approach Sir Robert with such a 
proposal, it was necessary that she should do so in 
complete good faith. Glorinda must have no arriere- 
pensee ; she must go to Rupert's uncle as the ingenuous. 


o 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


194 

impulsive maiden she truly was. She must hurl herself 
with whole-souled impetuosity against the barriers of 
respectability and convention. So would victory come, 
and not otherwise, and it would be a victory of love, and 
amusement, and compassion. “ The old boy hasn’t 
a dog’s chance,” was how he inwardly summed up the 
situation. 

Miss Lancaster, infinitely more shocked than the 
General by the crude impropriety of her niece's pro¬ 
posal, failed to recover herself. She could only, as from 
time to time she was able to fetch an adequate breath, 
ejaculate : 

' My dear Glorinda ! Are you mad ? ” Or, “ Impossi¬ 
ble ! ” “ Inconceivable ! ” 

“ Captain Lestrange won’t agree ? ” asked the General. 

“No,” Glorinda rapped out, indignantly. 

“ Good boy ! ” said the General. “ He is a gentleman.” 

Glorinda blazed at him. 

“ Haven’t you any compassion for him ? ” 

The General was not discomposed. 

“ Stick to it, my dear. If you two love each other, 
you’ll worry through somehow between you.” 

Miss Lancaster threw a glance of anger and resent¬ 
ment at her old friend, who was basely deserting her. 

“ General Bellamy ! ” 

The General rose to his feet. 

“ I see, I see. You think you’ll get on better without 
me. Perhaps you’re right. On the other hand, per¬ 
haps you’re not.” 

And he grinned his kindly, ferocious grin, and left 
aunt and nil ce together. 

Glorinda saw the twinkle in his eye and felt encouraged. 
She sat meditating the details of her coming expedition. 
Her aunt remained silent, being as yet afraid to speak. 
At last Glorinda broke out, 

“ I rather like old men, you know. They're intelli¬ 
gent and sympathetic.” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


195 

“ 0 my dear, my dear/* her aunt protested. “ You 
talk as if you had known a thousand. How many old 
men do you know ? ” 

“ Only two, General Bellamy and Sir Robert 
Lestrange.” 

“You seem to have changed your opinion about Sir 
Robert.” 

“ He's an obstinate pig. Just like Rupert. But I 
can see his resemblance to Rupert in other ways too. 
And I’m very fond of him, and he Jikes me. - You told 
me so yourself. And General Bellamy likes me quite a 
lot.” 

Miss Lancaster could not challenge these assertions. 
But she held rightly that she could claim an intimate 
knowledge of the General and she retorted : 

“ If you imagine that General Bellamy takes your 
scheme seriously, you're entirely mistaken. No one will 
take it seriously. Sir Robert won't. I don't.” 

“ Then why are you so agitated about it ? ” 

“ I am not agitated about it now. I was, for the 
moment. That was because you gave me a fright. 
You are so sudden.” 

“ You’re not frightened now. Auntie ? ” 

“ Not in the least.” 

“ Then I can go and see Sir Robert ? ” 

“ I wasn’t aware that you had been asking my 
permission.” 

“ But you will give it ? " 

Her aunt made no reply. But after a little she put a 
question. 

“ Have you discussed this with Rupert ? ” 

Glorinda laughed. 

“ Well, Auntie, I’m afraid I can hardly say that we 
discussed it. I made my proposal and he rejected it. 
And of course I was furious and left the room.” 

“ I presume Rupert has a right to his own point of 
view ? ” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


196 

" I'm afraid I didn't give him a chance of expressing 
it." 

“ That was both rude and foolish of you." 

Glorinda reflected for a httle, and replied with 
conviction: 

" How true that is, Auntie 1 If I hadn’t run away from 
Sir Robert everything would have been all right. I shall 
never run away again." 

Miss Lancaster seized what she conceived to be an 
opportunity. 

“ Then you will not go on this insane expedition of 
yours without seeing Rupert again." 

“ Of course I shall see him before I go. And I shall 
keep my temper this time." 

Miss Lancaster felt that she had spoken rashly. The 
transition from Glorinda angry to Glorinda persuasive 
alarmed her in spite of her conviction of the thorough 
futility of her niece’s scheme. But all she could trust 
herself to say was : 

“ Very well, my dear, that is all." 

Glorinda felt herself dismissed. 

Miss Lancaster, left alone with her thoughts, arrived 
at the conclusion to which a sensitive conscience natur¬ 
ally impelled her. It happened also to be a correct 
conclusion. 

“ It is my fault," she said to herself. “ It is all my 
fault. I ought not to have kept her so long in this 
ignorance. I thought she was still a child. Somehow 
one can’t keep pace with them." 

She dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief, and looked 
forlornly into the fire. 


CHAPTER XXV 


Glorinda, still in ecstasy with her project, and convinced 
of her ability to carry it through, felt herself impelled 
to indulge in the luxury of a solitary walk. The ardour 
of her thoughts, and her unconscious joy in the mere 
expenditure of physical energy, set her climbing vigor¬ 
ously until she reached the old Tuscan city which crowns 
the summit of the hill. Arrived there, she walked mile 
after mile along the road that overlooks the wide Valley 
of Vineyards. She had not in her mind any fixed notion 
of preparing a plan of campaign for the overcoming of 
Rupert or his uncle. It was sufficient for her, in her 
young self-confidence, to know that she was inspired by 
love. She was unable even to conceive any possibility 
of defeat. She knew that, when the time came, the 
spirit would clothe her convictions in the appropriate 
words. In the meantime, every detail of the scenery 
through which she was passing ministered to her natural 
joy ; ancient farm houses, with towers that were already 
there when Godfrey de Bouillon entered Jerusalem; 
distant monasteries; in the farther valley the shining 
coils of the Amo ; and, transfusing all, the sun setting 
in Florentine splendour behind the opaline mountains 
of Carrara. On her homeward journey in the swiftly 
falling twilight, she swung down the hill towards Florence 
with a glowing energy that captured the quick admiration 
of the Italians whom she passed. Now and again she 
met a Black Shirt, smiled and nodded to him as to 
a good comrade, and left him enraptured, gazing after 
her. 

At dinner she spoke with enthusiasm of what she had 
seen during her walk, and Miss Lancaster listened to her 
niece with a tender joy and wonder, not unmixed with 
the sadness that is aroused when the dear associations 
of long ago are brought back to memory. For an hour 
197 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


198 

or more after dinner, aunt and niece shared the delight 
of conversing about the things that they both loved. 
Then Glorinda looked at the clock. 

“ I’m not tired,” she said, “ but I'm sleepy. Oh it 
was lovely.” 

She kissed her aunt and bade her good night. Then 
she ascended to her room and made herself ready for 
bed. 

She heard a knock at the door. 

” Who’s there ? ” she asked. 

“ It's Marcella. May I come in ? ” 

'* Yes, come in. I’m just going to bed, but we can 
have a little talk.” 

Glorinda, robed in her dressing gown, was brushing 
her hair in front of the mirror. Marcella’s eyes glowed 
with fervid adoration. She rushed forward. 

" Oh, Glorinda, may I brush it ? Your hair is the most 
heavenly thing that ever existed.” 

Glorinda laughed and took a chair in front of the 
mirror. 

” My hair is a horrid nuisance,” she said. 

Marcella took the brush reverently, and began her 
labour of love. 

" Your hair is worthy of you, Glorinda,” she declared, 
with a depth of sentimentality which provoked an 
amused smile on her friend’s face. After a little she 
added, 

" And you are worthy of it.” 

Glorinda laughed out. 

" You do put things queerly, Marcella. Just imagine 
saying that any human being was worthy of having any 
particular head of hair. Do you know what they said 
about you in London ? ” 

” What did they say ? ” 

" They said you were intense. It’s true, isn’t it ? ” 

“ I daresay. I don’t think much of any one who 
isn’t.” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


199 


Glorinda pondered for a little. 

“ I wonder if Rupert is intense. He’s intensely 
obstinate, I know.” 

This was the opening for which Marcella had been 
waiting. With all the calm that she could muster she 
asked: 

“ Did you-” she hesitated, “ did you make that 

proposal to him ? ” 

“ I did,” replied Glorinda tersely. 

" Well ? ” 

“ He dug his toes in just the same as before. He 
won’t budge one inch. Oh I was furious with him.” 

“ You don’t seem to be furious now.” 

“ No, but I’m dangerous. I had a talk with Aunt 
Susan. I’m to stop being furious, and I’m to be 
persuasive.” 

" Miss Lancaster never said that.” 

" Auntie ? ” Glorinda laughed. “ I should rather 
think not. She meant just the opposite. She thinks 
Rupert will persuade me. In any case I’m to see him 
before I go.” 

Marcella was startled. 

“ Go ! Where are you going ? ” 

“I’m going to see Sir Robert Lestrange. I’ve had 
time to think about him, and I’m convinced I can per¬ 
suade him. I ought to have succeeded last time, if I 
hadn’t been such a young fool. Oh I’m learning, 
Marcella. I’ve learnt ever so much. I’ve learnt that 
it doesn't pay to be afraid of men.” 

“ That will always be true for you. Ever since I have 
known you, I have been trying to induce you to believe 
that.” 

“ Well, I know it now.” 

Marcella, while this conversation was in progress, was 
busy calculating chances. A phrase of Glorinda’s had 
caught her attention. She threw out a feeler. 

“ Were you very angry with him ? ” she asked. 


200 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


“ Fearfully. I was helpless with rage. Why, 
Marcella, I had offered myself to him. Women aren't 
doing that yet, as a general rule. The time’s coming, 
as we know, when they will. But as things are now, it 
was really rather Quixotic of me.” 

“ It was heroic.” 

“ I think so myself now,” she laughed. “ I told him 
he was a coward.” 

Marcella, thinking busily, reflected that Captain 
Lestrange was the sort of person who would be apt 
somewhat specially to resent being called a coward. 

“ I don’t really believe he’s a coward,” Glorinda 
resumed, " but he certainly wants stirring up, and I 
propose to do it. There's to be no running away this 
time. I don't leave him until I can carry his consent with 
me to his uncle.” 

“ You’ll find that difficult. I expect he looks on it 
as a point of honour. Men have curious ideas about 
points of honour, especially soldiers. For example-” 

She checked herself suddenly. A train of suggestion 
had swept through her, and she felt herself flushing with 
excitement. 

" You’re pulling my hair, Marcella,” Glorinda remon¬ 
strated. 

Marcella was actively adjusting her ideas. She was 
playing a double part. At the bottom of her heart she 
was yearning for a complete and final rupture between 
Glorinda and Rupert, but at the same time she had to 
make Glorinda believe that she was working for the 
immediate purpose which Glorinda had in hand. 

Marcella’s quick brain was working at its highest 
tension. The idea that she had had in her mind for 
some time was to procure an outburst of reciprocal 
anger between the two lovers. More precisely, what was 
to be aimed at was to secure an alienation sufficiently 
protracted to make it possible for her to bring Glorinda 
within the sphere of certain influences to which she had 



THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


201 


shown herself responsive. When she and Glorinda had 
been in London, Glorinda’s attitude towards men was 
that of the sublime indifference which is based on pro¬ 
found ignorance. But Glorinda was awake now, and a 
man would never ^gain be the same thing to her as a 
woman. There were wonderful men in London, dis¬ 
tinguished men, even dangerous men, men with whom, 
to Marcella’s thinking, Rupert could not compare for 
attractiveness. These men would be willing to be made 
use of. And later on, a new Glorinda, grown worldly- 
wise, ambitious, devoted to the cause, would forgive all, 
and be grateful. 

Marcella envisaged to herself the meeting between 
Rupert and Glorinda. Glorinda had been furiously 
angry. Now, however, as she had declared, she was not 
angry but dangerous. She was really, Marcella reflected, 
as angry as ever, but it was a cold anger now, a con¬ 
trolled anger, and Glorinda would set to work with a 
deadly efficiency. Captain Lestrange, for his part, could 
be trusted to die in the last ditch rather than give way. 
Miss Lancaster had, with unconscious skill, thrust her 
niece on to the line of greatest resistance, and, to be 
sure, if there was a position to be attacked, Glorinda 
would hurl herself at it, frontally and fearlessly. 

" Your aunt wants you to see him ? ” she asked, as 
she brushed the girl's hair lovingly. 

“ I’ve promised to see him. But I should have gone 
to him in any case.” 

"You want his consent before you go ? ” 

“ Yes. I want it. But I’m going to see Sir Robert 
in any case. I’m convinced that something will come 
out of it. I believe that General Bellamy thinks so, 
too.” 

“ Even so, you would have to persuade Captain 
Lestrange.” Marcella pondered. Glorinda's anger was 
for the present under control. But it might be depended 
upon to flare up again under grave provocation. Here 


202 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


surely was a good prospect of the irreparable rupture for 
which Marcella was working. 

The point of honour was the thing. Men were, to a 
woman’s intelligence, often incalculable, and never 
more so than in relation to the curious conventions which 
they had accumulated in the practice of those profes¬ 
sions, more especially that of arms, from which women 
had been excluded. To Glorinda's ardent tempera¬ 
ment, any mere convention was a flimsy straw, to be 
consumed in the burning flame of truth. Oh, Marcella 
saw a light there. First, she must find out exactly how 
far Glorinda’s wrath might be expected to carry her. 
Next, she must consider that curious and rather alien 
thing, the point of honour. How would the point of 
honour strike Captain Lestrange, and how Glorinda ? 
Was there any possible basis for agreement or com¬ 
promise ? To defeat Captain Lestrange on a point of 
honour would be difficult, but what a triumph it 
would be. 

“ Are you still angry with him ? ” she asked meekly. 

“ Yes, but in quite a different way.” 

“ In what way ? ” 

“I’ve quite determined to make him fall in with my 
proposal. I’ve been-Marcella, I’ve been hurt.” 

“ It’s the last insult, for a woman,” said Marcella, 
eyeing Glorinda’s face keenly in the mirror. 

Glorinda resumed, her voice showing traces of 
excitement: 

“ I know I am in the right. So I don’t care. I said 
I was dangerous and so I am. I know what is best for 
Rupert, and I am going to make him do it.” 

“ If you succeed, it won’t be necessary for you to see 
Sir Robert at all.” 

“ I shall tell Sir Robert, of course, and Aunt Susan, 
too. But what I’m going to do now is to make sure of 
Rupert.” 

“ You’ll stick at nothing ? ” 


203 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

Glorinda laughed a little grimly. 

" I am prepared to be absolutely unscrupulous.” 

Marcella nodded. That was the right spirit. Then 
she harked back to the trail, which she had temporarily 
dropped. 

“You think it is a point of honour with Captain 
Lestrange ? ” 

“ I suppose he would call it that. Considering that 
I don’t mind myself, I hardly see how the point of 
honour affects him.” 

“ Different men have different points of honour. It’s 
a point of honour with some men to stick to a woman 
when they’ve got her into trouble, or compromised her.” 

" You know very well that I shouldn’t care a scrap 
if Rupert compromised me.” 

“ Quite so. But supposing that you had compromised 
him ? ” 

Marcella bit her lip. What was she saying ? The 
words had come out at random. But there was an idea 
in them, none the less. Such things had occurred. 
Men, comparatively blameless, had been known to get 
themselves compromised, and had had to consent to 
arrangements to which they would not have acceded in 
ordinary circumstances. Supposing then that Glorinda 
did manage to compromise Captain Lestrange ? What 
would follow would be either a forced marriage, or a 
disagreeable rupture which would reflect dishonour on 
the man. 

Glorinda had taken little notice of the suggestion. 
She replied: 

“ My compromising him would be precisely the same 
thing as his compromising me. No more, no less.” 

But her mind was working on the idea. She looked at 
the reflection of Marcella’s face in the mirror. But 
Marcella had her eyes demurely downcast on Glorinda’s 
hair and was brushing it painstakingly. Suddenly : 


204 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

“ Marcella ! What on earth did you mean when you 
said that ? ” 

Marcella plucked up all her courage and spoke out 
boldly. “What I mean is that if you compromised 
Captain Lestrange irretrievably, you would gain such a 
hold over him that he would be at your mercy.” 

Glorinda turned and looked at her friend. 

“ Let me have it all, Marcella. What do you want me 
to do ? ” 

“You must go to him. You said you would stick at 
nothing.” 

“Iam going to him. I’m going to see him before I 
leave.” 

“ Go to him now.’ 

“ Now ? At once ? Just as I am ? 

“ With your hair down ? ” Marcella laughed ner¬ 
vously. “ Yes, just that. He doesn t really believe 
that you want to live with him. And you must prove 
it to him. Stay the whole night with him. Sleep with 
him.” 

“ Suppose he rejects me again ? ” 

“ He won’t. He can’t. No man in the world would. 
How often must I tell you that you don’t know your 
own power ? ” 

But Marcella did not believe what she herself had said. 
What she truly believed was that Rupert would remain 
true to his principles and would repulse Glorinda, 
would be driven to the conclusion that the girl was 
crazy and irresponsible, would resign himself to the 
idea of losing her, realizing that for a lifelong union she 
was impossible. And conceive Glorinda’s rage and 
bitterness ! 

“ Do you really advise that, Marcella ? ” 

“ It's the only way to make sure of him.” 

Glorinda rose from her chair. She looked at herself 
in the mirror. 

“ How do you like my dressing gown ? ” she asked. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


205 


Without waiting for an answer she ran on. 

“ It's a fearfully romantic thing to do. I'm sure 
Aunt Susan will think it rather daring of me." 

Then suddenly she made up her mind, and she dis¬ 
missed Marcella. 

“ Now, my dear, you can run away to your tower. 
I'll see you in the morning." 

They kissed each other good night. 

As Marcella climbed the long dark staircase leading 
to her chamber in the tower her thoughts were, 

“ In the morning. What will she be in the morning ? 
Perhaps there will be a new Glorinda ? But I think not. 
I believe Captain Lestrange is immovable. I hope so, 
though I hate him." 


CHAPTER XXVI 


Rupert, clad in a sleeping-suit and dressing-gown, was 
lying in a long chair in his bedroom. He was reading. 
But now and again he cast a glance at his watch. At ten 
o’clock he must rise from his chair and take half a wine¬ 
glass of the colourless fluid which the Marchese had 
prescribed for him. He must then go to bed. Otherwise 
the Marchese might come in and catch him breaking 
rules. 

He laid aside his book, and his thoughts turned 
to Glorinda. The hands of the clock moved on un¬ 
regarded. 

He had a great love for Glorinda ; a reverent worship 
of her noble qualities was joined to a tender amused 
compassion for her innocent fearlessness. As regards 
the proposal which she had made to him that afternoon 
he remained adamant. Tracing the design without 
difficulty to its source in Miss Tucker, he classed it 
unhesitatingly as sheer unadulterated mischief-making. 
He had been warned by General Bellamy and the Mar¬ 
chese against possible machinations by Miss Tucker, 
and he had been disposed to be amused at, rather than 
to resent, the suggestion that a malign influence could 
survive in the atmosphere of his love and Glorinda’s. 
There were practical obstacles, and these were serious 
enough in all conscience. But the General’s fiery 
prejudices and the Marchese's dark insinuations had 
alike failed to diminish his youthful self-confidence. As 
things had turned out, however, the two old gentlemen 
had been right, and Rupert was now putting to himself 
the question which a military training sets in the fore¬ 
front of every soldier’s mind, what action is required ? 
It was sufficiently clear to him that Miss Tucker must 
be got rid of, and that as soon as possible. He had been 
noticing small signs which indicated that Marcella’s 
206 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 207 

domination was on the wane. Glorinda was beginning, 
he thought, to find that lady amusing, and as Glorinda 
was undeniably the stronger character of the two, 
time could be trusted to complete the process of 
emancipation. But in the meantime Miss Tucker was 
positively and imminently dangerous to his plans and 
his peace of mind. Definite action against her was 
required. He considered the forces at his disposal; 
General Bellamy, Miss Lancaster, the Marchese; -all 
three of them detested Miss Tucker. Rupert decided that 
on the following morning all the available forces of the 
Villa Stellini should be deployed into action against 
Miss Tucker. 

As regards the Marchese, who had been carried away 
by his ultra-romantic sensibilities to such an extent as 
to lend his suppqrt to unwise precipitance, Rupert 
found assurance in the undoubted fact that the Marchese 
was a gentleman. The Marchese could be trusted to 
realize that there were limits to the intervention which 
one gentleman could presume to exercise in the affairs 
of another. And in any case the Marchese never offered 
an opinion unless he was asked for it. 

On the whole, Rupert considered that there was a fair 
chance that the factor of hasty and ill-judged action 
might be eliminated from the affair, and that he might 
be left to work out a plan, with help from Miss Lancaster 
and Glorinda, for the earlier subjugation of Sir Robert. 

His thoughts, with the quick optimism of youth, soon 
began to dwell on the future which he would be sharing 
with the girl whose love he had had the ineffable good 
fortune to gain. His fancies soon enveloped Glorinda 
with a flood of splendour. 

Then came a tap at the door. It must be the Marchese. 
He called to him to come in. 

The door opened, and Glorinda stood on the threshold. 
She seemed the realization of Rupert's vision. The 
light from the globe in the room shone down on her as 


208 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


she stood framed in the darkness of the doorway. The 
commonplace radiations of the electric film streamed past 
her with a purity and nobility of effect of which Rupert 
had vaguely striven to fathom the spiritual significance, 
when he had seen it in the great Madonna pictures. 

" Don’t get up," she cried, as he made a movement to 
rise. " I’ll come to you." 

She stepped into the room and closed the door. While 
she had her back turned to him, he saw the great masses 
of glistening red-gold hair that coiled and rippled over 
her shoulders down to her waist. 

She turned and faced him, but said nothing. The 
quiet casualness of her act in coming in and closing the 
door, and her silence as she stood there looking at him, 
forced Rupert to an attitude of nervous deprecation. 

"You came to see how I was getting on ? How awfully 
kind of you. I'm doing splendidly." 

Still she said nothing ; and he ran on, his self- 
possession diminishing as he spoke. 

" When I heard you knocking, I thought it was the 
Marchese. He comes along every night with his little 
thermometer. I ought really to be in bed now. I'm 
afraid he’ll drift in and catch me breaking rules." 

The hint was plain enough, if hint was intended, but 
Glorinda took no notice of it. She surveyed the room 
calmly before she spoke. 

" The bed is too small," she announced. " I shall 
sleep on the couch. You must have the bed, as you are 
an invalid." 

Rupert’s self-possession deserted him entirely. 

" My dearest girl-’’ he stammered. 

She came up to him. 

" I’m glad you have such a pretty dressing-gown if 
I am to be in your room. Do you like mine ? Apple- 
green. There are so few colours that go with my hair." 

She smoothed her gown to her figure. 

" My slippers ? " 


209 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

She kicked off her red morocco slippers. 

" My feet are not very small/' she laughed. " But 
they are very white, and the artists told me they were 
beautifully modelled. You must admire them now, 
because they are yours." 

She put her foot forward for his admiration. 

Rupert, utterly bewildered, said incoherently : 

“ You—you oughtn’t to be here, you know." 

" In the morning," she went on, " I can go to my own 
room to dress. Thank goodness I’m not up in the 
tower." 

Rupert’s head whirled. What could he do or say ? 
He must get this girl out of his room, by hook or by 
crook, and with whatever rudeness was necessary. 
She obviously had not the slightest notion of the sig¬ 
nificance of her actions. 

"You ought not to be here," he repeated. 

" Why not, Rupert ? My dearest boy," she laughed 
with gentle mockery; "do not, oh do not tell me that 
it isn't proper. Do you think I don’t know that it isn’t 
proper ? " She came up close to him and put her arms 
round him. "Now put your arms round me the same 
way as you did in the garden. So ’’—she guided his 
arms. " There, is that proper ? I dare you to say that 
it isn’t proper. If it isn’t proper, why did you do it in 
the garden ? " 

Rupert made a fierce effort to collect himself. But how 
could he collect himself when every moment produced a 
new surprise which scattered his self-control to the 
winds ? 

" Must you go to bed at once ? " she asked. " Will 
the Marchese be angry if we have a little talk first ? " 

" Darling, you must really go." 

"I'm not going. Rupert, kiss me." 

" Will you go if I kiss you ? " 

" No. Certainly not. You will have to kiss me again, 
ever so often." 


210 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


She drew his head to hers, and kissed him. She felt 
his arms slackening their embrace. 

" No, no," she cried. " Keep your arms there. And 
you must look at me. Don't look over my shoulder. 
Look into my eyes.. Don't you like it ? " 

Rupert did his utmost to protest. 

"You really must go. The Marchese may be in any 
moment." 

" I want the Marchese to see us. I almost asked 
Marcella to come in." 

Rupert was near the end of his resources. This 
situation must be brought to an end. But how ? 
Glorinda was quite determined not to go. 

" If you won't go," he said, " I must." 

She looked at him, and a faint smile crossed her face. 
Then she spoke seriously. 

" Rupert, I love you better than I love the whole 
world. You know that for certain, don’t you ? " 

" Yes." 

" I have the greatest admiration for you. You have 
heaps of splendid qualities. But there is one thing in 
which I am superior to you. I am better at making 
up my mind than you are. It is quite time you and I 
took a decisive step." 

She looked at Rupert's face, but it showed no sign of 
approval, and she went on : 

"You know perfectly well that I am yours and you 
are mine, for ever and ever. But we want other people 
to realize that, as well as ourselves, and nothing will 
convince them unless we take a decisive step. You 
won't make up your mind. You keep on thinking of 
uncles and aunts. There is only one way of dealing with 
uncles and aunts in a case like ours, and that is to con¬ 
front them with a fait accompli. Do you agree ? " 

" No, I don’t think I do. What is it that you want to 
suggest ? " 

" Kings have mistresses, Rupert. Marcella says so. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


211 


You are my king, and I shall be your mistress. Some 
day I shall be your queen." 

“ I can’t do it, darling. I can’t. You don't under¬ 
stand. I should be the greatest blackguard in the 
world if I did a thing like that.” 

“ But, my dearest boy, I agree to it. You wouldn’t 
be taking a mean advantage of me, or anything like 
that.” 

" That is precisely what I should be doing.” 

“ If I did it with my eyes open ? ” 

There came a tap at the door. Rupert started in 
alarm. It must be the Marchese ; he must be kept out 
of the room. He began to say “ Don’t come in,” but 
it was Glorinda’s louder and more penetrating voice that 
reached the Marchese’s ears. 

" Come in, Marchese,” she cried gaily. 

The Marchese opened the door and stood on the 
threshold. His dark countenance betrayed no astonish¬ 
ment at the scene he was witnessing. He was a model 
of demure discretion. 

Glorinda cried out gaily: ”0 Marchese, it’s so 

jolly your coming. I’ve been waiting for you.” 

“ Ah ! You want my blessing ? You have it.” 

Rupert made an effort to speak, but Glorinda put her 
hand playfully on his mouth. 

The Marchese smiled. 

“ I will not stay. My dearest children ! God knows 
how I love you. Addio, addio ! ” 

He waved his hand and went away. 

When the door closed, Glorinda, jubilant, turned to 
Rupert and said : 

“Now we are hopelessly compromised, both of us.” 

Rupert’s anger seemed to be a little roused, for the 
first time in their interview. 

“ The Marchese happens to be a gentleman,” he said, 
curtly. 


212 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


"Yes, but I’m not,” retorted Glorinda. "You may 
as well give in.” 

Rupert looked her very straight in the eyes. 

" Glorinda, I want to get up. Let me get up.” 

She took her arms from round him, and he rose to his 
feet slowly and carefully. He walked towards the open 
window, and looked out into the olive garden. He knew 
that there was more in Glorinda’s attitude than this 
mere trick, if trick it was, signified. Presently he 
looked over his shoulder and said •: 

" I’m sorry to be so slow. There’s something I want 
to say, but I can’t quite get it.” 

After a pause he turned to her again, and asked : 

" Was it Miss Tucker’s idea that you should come 
here ? ” 

" Yes, it was.” 

He turned again towards the open window and the 
outside darkness. The Marchese’s visit had been 
untimely, but it had at least given him a sense that one 
aspect of the matter was over and done with. An 
intrusion might have meant a scandal; but a scandal 
seemed to him to be becoming an unimportant thing in 
the view of larger issues that were now looming vaguely 
in his mind. 

He turned again to Glorinda. 

" I knew it was Miss Tucker. But suppose that I am 
compromised ? Who am I ? What does it matter for 
me ? It isn’t a question of being compromised for either 
of us. It’s a question of-” 

He hesitated. 

" Well, Rupert, if it isn’t that, what is it ? You want 
to say something, don’t you ? If you think I’ve done 
wrong, do please tell me.” 

" It isn’t a question of right and wrong. I mean that 
it isn’t a question of whether other people will think it 
right or wrong. There’s something behind right and 
wrong. That’s what I’m trying to get at.” 



THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 213 

He looked out into the darkness and tried to think. 
But he was vaguely aware that it was not thoughts that 
he was seeking. It was rather some emotion which he 
had hardly yet realized, a conception which he had never 
heard expressed, as far as he could remember. 

“ What is it, Rupert ? " 

Rupert struggled to express himself. He had never 
in his life expressed himself frankly in matters of the 
emotions, and he came clumsily to the task. 

“ I don't quite know what it is. But I am sure it is 
something that you will understand. I am sure you will. 
Far better than I ever could." 

“ Go on, darling. You know that I will help you if I 
can." 

There was still the slight mocking gleam in her eyes, 
but as she looked at Rupert, and saw the struggle that 
was going on in his mind, she became grave. 

" Yes, dearest, go on. What is this idea ? " 

“ It isn’t an idea. At any rate it isn’t my idea. I 
didn’t know about it at all until I met you. Even now 
I can't fix it down. It is just a sort of difference that 
I have become conscious of. A change. You laughed 
at marriage ceremonies, didn’t you ? " 

“ Yes, Rupert." 

" Well, in a sort of way, so do I. I've got a new sense, 
somehow. It's since I met you. I wish I could express 
it. I'm not much good at this kind of thing. I never 
could say anything of this sort without making a fool 
of myself." 

He laughed nervously. Glorinda went up to him and 
put her arms round him and pressed him close. In a 
little he went on : 

“ You know what everybody thinks of love. I know 
what I’ve always thought of love. Falling in love, 
making love, marriage, children, growing old, the whole 
world doing it, generation after generation. I don't 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


214 

suppose that any one person can quite take in the great¬ 
ness of it. There’s something-” 

He gave up in despair. 

“ I can't express myself, dearest. It’s no good.” 
Glorinda looked at him with tender affection, as a 
mother might look at a child struggling with its first 
words. Already with her finer intelligence and greater 
heart she had shot ahead of Rupert, and was realizing 
more fully than he ever could the idea with which he 
was painfully wrestling. 

He blundered on, lamely : 

“ It’s just love. I can’t say anything more than that. 
Everything is there. Mothers, and boys and girls, and 
my friends who died in the trenches. It’s all in it. It’s 
such a whacking great thing.” 

He looked helplessly into her eyes. Then he went on, 
shamefacedly: 

" You came here, as you say, to compromise me. 

Such a small thing, when you think-” 

She cried out in sudden pain. 

“ Oh, Rupert, don’t, don't. I'm ashamed of myself. 
I see now, I see. What a poor shallow fool I've been. 
Oh forgive me, Rupert. I didn't know what I was 
doing. Forgive me.” 

She held him closer, and buried her face on his breast. 
" I'm going, Rupert. I'm going. But forgive me first.’' 
He raised her face, which was wet with tears. 

" Darling, I don’t somehow seem to see you and me 
forgiving each other.” 

She laughed through her tears. 

“No. That would be nonsense, wouldn’t it ? 
Rupert, I’m going.” 

“ Then I think I'll say what the Marchese said. 
Dearest child, God knows how I love you. Addio.” 

A tender embrace; and they separated. 

“ Addio,” from Rupert. 

“ Addio,” from Glorinda. 


CHAPTER XXVII 

" Marcella, O Marcella.” 

Glorinda’s voice rang out cheerily from the terrace. 
Marcella ran to her window in the tower, and looked down 
and saw her friend. 

“ Come along down, lazy bones/’ Glorinda called. 

Marcella sped down the staircase. Glorinda greeted 
her with a radiant smile. Marcella, breathless and 
intense, gazed up into Glorinda’s face, seeking an answer 
to the question which had cost her a sleepless night. 
Glorinda observed her excitement. She laughed a 
ringing laugh of joy and happiness. 

“ It’s all over, my dear Marcella.” 

“ Glorinda,” Marcella pleaded in an agony, “ what do 
you mean ? ” 

" Just that.” 

“ Are you going to live with him ? ” 

Glorinda arched her eyebrows. 

” Marcella, my dear girl, you are ignorant. Just 
ignorant. That’s the only word for it. Live with him 
indeed ! That sort of thing isn’t done.” 

She laughed again with perfect friendliness and good 
humour and a touch of mockery, and took Marcella’s 
arm: They strolled away towards the farm road, 
Marcella waiting silently, with ill-concealed impatience. 

“ There’s plenty that I could tell you, if I wanted to,” 
Glorinda went on, “ but I’m one of the married ones 
now. I mustn’t tell tales out of school.” 

“ You’re not married.” 

“ I’m just as good as married.” 

Marcella fumed with exasperation at these statements, 
which seemed to her to be self contradictory. She 
broke out: 

" You say that you’re not going to live with him, and 
first you’re married and then you’re not married. Do tell 
215 


2l6 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


me what it all means, Glorinda,” she protested angrily, 
“ if you don’t stop teasing me, I shall-” 

She turned her face aside to conceal the rising tears of 
vexation. Glorinda put an arm round Marcella’s 
shoulder. 

“ Poor dear, was it angry then ? Very well, it shall be 
told. Marcella,” she changed her tone to burlesque, 
“ everything is for the best, in the best of all possible 
worlds.” 

Marcella made a petulant movement to disengage 
herself from the arm that lay on her shoulder. But 
Glorinda held her tighter. 

“ He’s an obstinate pig, as I’ve said before. I did 
my utmost, but he wouldn’t have anything to do with 
me. He turned me out of the room. The result is that 
I’m going to be a goo'd girl now, and do everything he 
tells me.” 

Her laughter rang out gleefully. But for Marcella 
it was defeat, utter irretrievable defeat. The forces 
of convention had conquered. Captain Lest range, 
with that curious quality of his that intimidated and 
baffled her, had come out the victor. 

She had failed. She # had doubly failed. She had 
failed to shake a man with the strongest temptation that 
could be offered to him by the combined strength of God 
and Nature and the Devil. But, far worse, her wiles 
had been turned to confusion. Glorinda had put her 
,lover to the test. The result of his possible compliance 
was to have been turned if possible to the young man’s 
ruin and disgrace. But the young man had not complied 
and that test at any rate had failed. And on the second 
issue her defeat was even more tragical. The refusal was, 
by Marcella’s plan, to have aroused in Glorinda the scorn 
and hatred that a woman would feel whose person had 
been despised, her overtures rejected, her most sacred 
principles held in derision. But Glorinda had been too 
great for Marcella. Her advances had, it is true, been 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 217 

repelled, the test had been withstood. Marcella had had 
in her heart a wicked furtive notion that the light of 
morning would reveal in Glorinda's countenance some 
element of shamefacedness, as of Eve when she had 
eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 
But she looked at Glorinda, and in her countenance 
there was no shamefacedness. Glorinda stood as before, 
unpertufbed, generous, strong-hearted. Glorinda had 
laughed happily and gaily, had accepted her defeat as an 
insignificant thing, had blessed her lover, and bidden 
him be at peace. 

Marcella walked beside her in sour mortification at the 
idea that a correct well-groomed popinjay, a puppet 
worked by the strings of convention, should baffle her 
schemes for Glorinda and the world. “ He is a rock, 
~ a dead wall, insensate," she thought, " I cannot move 
™ him. But I will, by God, I will. He is not done with 
me yet." 

“ He was too strong for you," Marcella said bitterly. 

“ Was he ? I don't know and I don’t care. I love 
him more than ever." 

The odious announcement crushed Marcella. After 
a time she said savagely : 

" They will always be too strong for us." 

“ Who ? " 

“ Men." 

“ Rubbish, Marcella." Then she looked at her friend 
with the sort of tender superiority that a mother would 
show to a child. 

“ Are you very much disappointed in me ? " 

" Terribly." Marcella's face twitched. “ We've lost 
you. You will be on the other side now." 

“ Why should I ? " 

“ You will never be a leader now. You will never go 
into the House of Commons." 

“ I dare say not. But Rupert shall, if he wants to." 

Marcella shrugged her shoulders, and made a grimace. 


2l8 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


“ Oh, you're done. You're finished. You're a 
British matron. You'll go to church. You’ll have 
Russia leather prayer-books and a string of children, 
and you'll talk about the Empire, and your boys will 
go to Eton, and you'll never consider anything at all, 
except what is good form." 

Glorinda looked at her with invincible good humour. 

“I'll tell you what you want, Marcella." 

“ I don't want anything. I've lost all that I valued 
in the world. Nothing will ever take your place." 

Then she looked suspiciously at Glorinda, and went 


on. 


“You were going to tell me what I wanted. 
I want ? " 


What do 


“ You want a man all to yourself." 

Marcella disengaged herself fiercely from Glorinda’s ^ 

arm- 

“You make me sick," she cried. After a pause she 
continued. “ You needn't think that I’m such an 
innocent about men. I've known heaps of men." 

“ One is enough." 

Marcella broke out passionately. 

“ It isn't, it isn't, for you. You were bom to use 
your power over thousands. Think of the Black Shirts 
yesterday." 

Glorinda reflected. 

“ Rupert says I might have been an honorary colonel." 

“ Think of those times in London. Oh it is wicked of 
you. Wicked." 

They arrived at the old Roman bath, and seated them¬ 
selves on the marble seat. Glorinda, sympathising 
with her friend over her distress, and yet amused not a 
little inwardly, came in close to her to console her. 

“ Cheer up. The skies aren’t going to fall in yet." 

“ They are. You will never understand. Suppose 
that the greatest passion of your life was suddenly 
snatched away from you." 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


219 


“ You mean Rupert ? " 

The name infuriated Marcella. 

“No," she cried savagely, “ I wasn't thinking of 
your Rupert. You represented everything to me. The 
whole world. Love and the future. You were all the 
women in the world to me. All my hopes for them were 
in you." 

“ I’m not dead yet." 

“ You are. You’re dead and buried. I’m going back 
to England to-night." 

“ What will you do there ? " 

“ I shall go mad. I shall probably commit suicide. 
I’ve nothing left to live for." 

They were silent for a time, but Glorinda, glowing 
with the joy of life and the love of all things beautiful, 
could not resist the splendour of the morning sunshine, 
and the magnificence of the panorama which lay before 
her. 

“ Don’t you love this place, Marcella ? " 

“Not apart from you." 

“You will hate leaving it." 

“ I shall hate leaving you." 

“ We were going to bathe here, weren't we ? " 

“ Yes." 

“ It would be lovely to bathe here now, in the glorious 
sunshine. Let us do it." 

Marcella considered the proposal. For herself she 
did not very much wish to bathe. In these morning 
hours, the water would still be chilly, and as regarded 
Glorinda it was clear to Marcella that Glorinda was now 
definitely enlisted in the ranks of the respectable. 
Respectable people did not bathe naked in the open air, 
which was seemingly what Glorinda contemplated doing. 
Glorinda had not yet, apparently, grasped this detail in 
the canons of respectability. It was obviously Mar¬ 
cella’s duty to tell her. 


220 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

“ Miss Lancaster wouldn’t approve/' she said 
mockingly. 

“ Oh, Auntie wouldn't mind. What she objected to 
was my bathing among a lot of strange men." 

Marcella meditated further. She knew very well 
that Miss Lancaster would not approve. Captain 
Lestrange also would not approve. More than that, 
Captain Lestrange, being the sort of man he was, would 
doubtless presume to forbid it, if he were given any 
opportunity of doing so. 

The devil entered into Marcella. Captain Lestrange 
would be annoyed. He would even be infuriated. 
Marcella wanted to hurt him, and this would hurt him, 
if anything would. She wanted to hurt him, and then 
run away. 

“ There are no men here," said Glorinda. “ Only the 
old faun,” she laughed. 

Marcella reflected inwardly that they were very near 
the path, and people might chance to pass along. 

“ I'll tell you what," she suggested, “ you can bathe 
and I shall keep watch. If anybody comes I’ll warn 
you." 

" Splendid," cried Glorinda. She leaped to her feet, 
and began rapidly to strip off her clothes. In a few 
moments she stood on the edge of the bath, naked, with 
her arms folded across her lovely young breasts. Her 
hair was coiled in a red-gold mass on her head and she 
patted it here and there, and said, 

" I must take care my hair doesn't come down. Let 
me see what the water is like." 

She dipped a foot in the water. 

“ It’s coldish," she said. “ I don't suppose I'll stay 
in very long." 

Slowly she descended the marble steps. She shivered 
slightly as she felt the water about her knees, her hips, 
her waist. 

“ The sun is glorious, isn’t it ? she exclaimed with 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 221 

ecstasy, and she swept her arms out towards the sky. 
Marcella was rapt in adoration of the loveliest spectacle 
she had ever witnessed. Glorinda was more beautiful 
than anything that the galleries of Florence could show. 

Marcella forgot to think of herself. She forgot her 
hatred of Captain Lestrange, and she forgot her duty. 
She neglected to keep watch. 


CHAPTER XXVIII 


Rouen, Nancy, Orleans; Dresden, Leipzig, Munich; 
Genoa, Turin, Florence ; so wander the caravans and 
their people. Year in, year out, from one great fair to 
another, they have kept their course, from time im¬ 
memorial, and the world shows no stranger form of 
existence. The ancient monarchies of Europe do not 
possess a more complex hierarchy. Princes of the blood 
(it is Romany blood, to be sure) and criminals are no¬ 
where brought so close together, are nowhere so definitely 
kept apart by an inviolable barrier of tabu, as in the 
wandering world of the caravans. 

Highest in the warrant of precedence stand the 
proprietors and employers ; the capitalists, the owners 
of tents, horses, wild beasts, gymnastic apparatus, stage 
scenery, motor waggons. They are solid men, these, 
rarely condescending to be artists. Their migrations 
are as methodical as the precession of the equinoxes, 
by which, indeed, if you consider the matter, their 
wanderings are essentially regulated. These groups 
swing with firmamental steadiness northward, south¬ 
ward, countering the world’s oscillations. 

Next in order of rank come the artists, of whom some 
have two legs and others four. Those with four legs 
do their best to imitate those with two. There are 
wrestling bears and wrestling men ; there are dogs who 
leap gracefully through hoops, and there are also ladies 
who leap rather less gracefully through larger hoops; 
there are pigs who will pick you out a number from a row 
of numbers, and there are men who will pick you out a 
card from a pack of cards ; there are monkey trapezists 
and women trapezists. 

Following the artists comes the next category, which 
comprises those who are, by nature or art, beautiful and 
interesting. For if they were not beautiful and interest- 


222 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


223 

ing why should they be there, and how could they earn 
a living ? Such are the bearded lady, the living skeleton, 
the tattoed woman, the human snake and the many 
forms of freak. These are hardly artists in the strictest 
sense of the word, but by the mercy of God, to keep them 
from killing themselves, they possess a full share of the 
vanity and self-consciousness of the artistic breed. 

Next comes mere manual labour, the motor driver, 
the mechanician, the man of the merry-go-round, and the 
purveyor of music by steam-power, and the producers 
generally of the tornado of noise, crashing and blatant, 
which cheers the heart of the unsophisticated, and pre¬ 
pares it for an uncritical appreciation of the fun of the 
fair. 

Next in order are the mere hangers-on ; wastrels, 
incorrigible vagrants and idlers, sutlers in the ancient 
sense of the word, that is to say, performers of menial 
and unpleasant tasks. These catch on gaily to the 
skirts of the caravan throng, when it visits their native 
city. They follow it with diminishing zeal for a migra¬ 
tion or two, and then their natural shiftlessness gets 
the better of them, and they drift back to their familiar 
slums. 

And last of all come the apaches. This tribe is of 
mean stature and contemptible physique. Its members 
differ from the sutlers by virtue of possessing sufficient 
hardihood to make them capable of occasional crime. 
They comprise the pickpocket, the confidence trickster, 
the furtive seller of drugs with strange properties, the 
revealer of indecencies to inquisitive country folk. 
Jail birds these are, to a man ; with them, life see-saws 
between the crowd and the solitary cell. Their eyes are 
ever looking over their shoulders, and they are ill to 
meet with on a lonely road. The respectable professional 
caravanners regard them with dislike and suspicion. 
Their crimes require a certain quality of courage, but 
with them, on the whole, cowardice predominates. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


224 

They intimidate only the timid, and, like the wild dog, 
their bravery is most conspicuous when they hunt in a 
pack. The only thing that saves them from utter 
damnation is the instinct that drives them out of their 
fetid city slums, and sends them wandering afoot under 
the open sky. 

On the hot sunny morning on which Marcella had 
engaged to keep watch while Glorinda was bathing, a 
small train of gipsy vans was slowly climbing the hill 
that slopes upward on the northern side of the Val 
d’Arno. Some time had yet to pass before the next 
great fair, and the owners were meanwhile dispersing in 
detachments ; here a circus, there a troop of players, to 
exploit the smaller Tuscan cities. Three living-vans were 
followed by two heavy waggons laden with tents and 
apparatus. Keeping close to the caravan, walked its 
half-gipsy crew, the owner, his wife and children, the 
artists, and the handy men, chattering a strange patois 
of Romany, intermingled with German and Czech and 
Italian. At a carefully calculated distance followed a 
group consisting of a grossly stout woman and four 
apaches. These did not approach very near to the 
caravan, knowing that their too close proximity would 
be unwelcome; nor did they fall too far behind, for it 
was convenient, when they were questioned by the rural 
gendarmerie, to be able to point to the wheeled vehicles 
as presumptive evidence of respectability. 

The stout woman toiled heavily up the hill side. She 
paused for rest whenever possible, confident that her 
gang of wastrels would not dare to stray too far out of 
her sight. She carried on her back the lightest burden 
which would suffice to deceive the police, a small bundle 
of rushes and a few rush baskets, ostensible proof of an 
occupation. 

From her face and physique, and from the company 
she kept, it was easy enough to piece together her story. 
She was of a stature and strength far surpassing those 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


225 

of her male comrades. In her youthful days she had 
obviously been a gymnast, or a performer of feats of 
strength. But her loose mouth and bloated face were 
those of a drinker, and her gross body was that of one 
who resisted no physical appetite. Nevertheless there 
was power in her heavy jaw, and easily roused fury in her 
fierce black eyes and meeting eyebrows. 

Her love of mastery over men satisfied itself in her 
domination over her ignoble satellites. She liked to 
have her men about her, scouting, picking, and stealing, 
fetching and carrying, and coming to heel when called. 

And the apaches, for their part, submitted with 
sufficient good nature to the tyranny of their mistress. 
For she had experience and cunning, and a ready flow 
of language, and could be trusted to browbeat or cajole 
a gendarme into a state of apprehension or bewilder¬ 
ment. Furthermore, they felt that she had the gift of 
holding the pack together, and that they were stronger 
thus, and more effective, and able to work on a larger 
scale. 

As this unattractive group was passing the gateway 
of the Villa Stellini, one of the apaches, alert for a chance 
of plunder, pressed the iron gate in order to see whether 
it was locked. The gate yielded to the pressure of his 
hand, and he peeped cautiously into the olive orchard. 
His eyes opened wide with an expression of amazement. 
He turned and beckoned to his mates. The gate was 
thrust a little further open, and all four of the apaches 
gazed greedily. Presently there were winks and nudges 
and evil grins. The stout woman, overheated and short 
of breath and temper, came up and stood behind them, 
looking over their heads. Fascinated by what they 
saw, and yet for all their degraded morality, violently 
shocked at it, they gazed for a time without speaking. 
The apaches were as yet unaware of the presence of their 
mistress, and one of them in an undertone made a lewd 
jest. This aroused in a moment the fierce jealousy of 


226 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


the woman, and she caught him a swinging blow on the 
side of the head. Cursing him obscenely, she shouted, 

“ You dirty-minded little devil ! I'll teach you to 
keep your eyes off naked hussies while you're keeping 
company with me." 

Marcella looked round and leaped to her feet with a 
cry of alarm. 

" Glorinda, take care. See these horrid people." 

Glorinda looked towards the gate. 

“ O Marcella, you careless girl, you've not been 
watching. If Aunt Susan knew this she would be angry 
with me," she laughed. 

But Marcella was already in an agony of apprehension. 
Losing her self-possession, she screamed to the five people 
standing in the gateway, 

“ Shut the gate. Go away. Go away at once." 

She started to run towards the gate, but when she 
was halfway there, and saw more clearly the .five evil 
faces, her courage deserted her. Her steps faltered, 
and her brain swam with an unnamed terror. The 
apaches were quick to notice her fear. They felt the 
braver because of it, and the grin of the snarling pariah 
showed itself on their faces. But the stout woman kept 
her jealous fury for the beautiful girl who was standing 
in the bath. Glorinda, vaguely anxious, but not yet 
alarmed, came up slowly out of the bath and stood fully 
exposed on the topmost step, while the virago raved at 
her from the gateway. 

"You shameless slut ! An honest woman that makes 
her living on the streets would think shame to do what 
you’re doing, You rich people live in your villas behind 
your closed gates, and what are you up to there, I’d 
like to know ? We’re going to put an end to that sort 
of thing. Curse you ! " 

The four apaches advanced with slow cruelty on the 
terror-stricken Marcella. One of them turned to his 
mistress with a malignant leer, and asked, 


227 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

“ What’ll we do ? Strip her like the other ? ” 

“ She’s not worth stripping. Stone her. Stone 
them both. Drowning’s too good for them.” 

She advanced towards Marcella, who retreated slowly 
backwards. One of the apaches, gloating over Mar¬ 
cella’s terror, snatched at her skirt, and Marcella turned 
and fled towards Glorinda. 

" Glorinda, run. Run quickly. They’ll kill you. 
They’ll-Run, run.” 

The stout woman and apaches followed close upon her. 

“ Shut her mouth,” said the stout woman pointing to 
Marcella. “ She makes too much noise.” 

An apache seized Marcella, but she struck him vio¬ 
lently in the face, and tore herself free. He cursed, and 
with the fingers of his right hand searched inside his left 
sleeve, and disengaged the weapon which, after the 
apache custom, he carried there. It was a smooth iron 
rod, weighted at one end with a knob, like the handle of 
a common poker. 

" You do that again, you bitch, and I’ll lay you out,” 
he cried, as he shook the rod at her menacingly. 

Marcella was by this time close up to Glorinda. One 
of the apaches stretched out his hand to seize her, and 
the stout woman made straight for Glorinda. 

Marcella flung herself in front of Glorinda, and dashed 
herself uselessly against the massive bulk of her antagon¬ 
ist. The stout woman caught her by the wrist. Glorinda 
stepped forward to release her friend. Marcella shrieked 
again. Glorinda, unperturbed, rebuked her : 

" Oh, do be quiet, Marcella. I can manage this all 
right. Let me speak to her.” 

The apaches, partly cowed by their mistress’s fury, 
partly awed by Glorinda’s strange beauty, stood by 
inactive. Then the one who carried the iron rod 
whispered hoarsely, 

" Let’s cut away out of this, mistress. There’s too 
much noise here.” 


228 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


But the brute fury of the virago was by this time 
uncontrollable. She snatched the iron rod trom the 
apache. Glorinda, with a calm smile of natural author¬ 
ity, raised her hand in a gesture of deprecation. The 
stout woman aimed a blow with the rod at the raised 
hand. Marcella shrieked again, flew at her like a 
wild cat, and buried her nails in her face. The stout 
woman, now completely beside herself, blind and reck¬ 
less with fury, swung the weighted rod savagely. Twice 
she struck, once upon Marcella's raised arm, once on 
Glorinda’s temple. There was a noise as of bones 
splintering, and Glorinda dropped like a stone. 

At that moment Rupert and General Bellamy, who 
had heard Marcella's shrieks, came in sight, running 
round the bend of the path. The apaches turned and 
fled, the woman easily keeping pace with them for all 
her stoutness. Rupert was overtaking them rapidly. 
He came within reach of the hindmost apache and aimed 
a blow at his head with his heavy walking stick. But 
weakened with his days in bed, he had overestimated his 
strength, and in swinging the stick he lost his balance. 
His knees gave way, and he fell heavily forward on the 
path. 

The General cast a glance at Glorinda, but fancying 
that she had fainted, turned his attention to Rupert. 

Rupert was lying at full length along the path, face 
dbwnwards. His eyes were closed, his breathing was 
laboured, his face was flushed a deep red. The General 
stooped over him, listened to the convulsive breathing, 
looked into the flushed face. 

" My God, my God ! " he cried, “ the poor boy has 
done for himself." 


CHAPTER XXIX 


General Bellamy turned to Marcella. 

“ Is there anything wrong with Miss Swift ? ” he 
pointed to Glorinda, “ or has she merely fainted ? ” 

“ She was struck on the side of the head with an iron 
bar.” 

The General stooped over Glorinda, and touched the 
contusion on her temple. Then he pressed it and the 
surrounding parts very gently with his fingertips. 

" Smashed to atoms,” he said. He reflected for a 
little. As far as he could judge, immediate operation 
would be necessary in both cases. In Miss Swift’s 
case the shattered wall of the temple must be dealt with. 
In Rupert’s case there would be internal injuries to be 
explored. What was the best thing to do ? 

To carry them to the house and send for a surgeon ? 
And possibly spend half the morning at the telephone 
trying to intercept a doctor on his rounds ? The alter¬ 
native was to send them directly to the accident ward 
at the hospital. But how to transport them ? Where 
to find ambulances ? The Marchese might have helped, 
but he had gone out. 

He looked up and saw Beppina, who had arrived, and 
was standing there, stricken dumb with pity and terror. 

“ Beppina, where can we get a hospital ambulance 
immediately ? ” 

" O signor, I don’t know.” She wrung her hands 
helplessly. " How should I know about ambulances ? 
I will run to the house and ask.” 

She turned to run, but General Bellamy grasped her 
arm and spoke peremptorily, 

“ Stop. Keep calm. Don’t get excited. Now think, 
and answer carefully. Where do you people in Florence 
go when there is an accident ? ” 

” O Signor. The Misericordia, of course. They are 
always ready, day and night.” 

229 


230 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


“ Run to the house and ring them up sharp; a 
double ambulance with a surgeon; Villa Stellini; 
immediately.” 

He went again to Rupert. He had an impulse to 
turn him over, so that he would be lying on his back, 
but from his previous knowledge he surmised the pro¬ 
bable nature of his injury, and feared to touch him. 
It was no case for ignorant hands; he feared even to 
loosen the clothes ; so he had to stand there, waiting 
idly. 

He looked at Marcella, who appeared to him to be 
completely distraught. She had taken Glorinda’s dress 
and had covered her with it. She was now seated on 
the ground beside Glorinda, stroking her hand and rock¬ 
ing herself to and fro. 

“ She was half mad before,” the General reflected, 
” she’ll go crazy now for certain.” 

Beppina ran back breathless to report that the Miseri- 
cordia had despatched a double ambulance with a 
surgeon. Beppina had no eyes but for the insentient 
Glorinda. She wrung her hands and swayed from side 
to side, repeating over and over again distractedly, 

" Ah how beautiful she is,! Com ’ l bella, Com ’ i 
bella ! She is dead, she is dead ! The Signorina Glorinda 
is dead.” 

Miss Lancaster had followed Beppina down from the 
house. When she saw her niece lying there, white and 
still as death, with Marcella seated beside her, caressing 
her hand and moaning, she turned tc General Bellamy 
as if meaning to speak. But her lips refused to frame 
words. Her eyes closed, and she swooned and fell. 
General Bellamy went to Beppina, and caught her by 
the arm and shook her. 

” Silence ! ” he said to her harshly, " attend to Miss 
Lancaster.” 

Beppina obeyed mechanically. 

In a miraculously brief space of time, a huge grey 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


231 

hospital ambulance glided down the farm road and came 
to a halt opposite the Roman bath. The driver of the 
ambulance was cowled in black; only his eyes showed 
through a slit. When the car stopped, a brother of the 
Misericordia, shrouded from h^ead to foot in black, 
descended from the interior of the ambulance. He 
went first to Glorinda and examined the contusion on 
her temple. A minute gesture of despair revealed his 
quickly formed opinion. Then he turned to Rupert. 
The General began to explain what Rupert's condition 
had been before his fall, and what internal injuries 
he dreaded had been caused. But the cowled brother 
raised his hand to enjoin silence. 

" I know all, General Bellamy. I am the Marchese 
Calderari. I was on duty when the call came." 

The ambulance was wide enough to take two patients, 
and there was space left for a narrow passage between 
the beds. Glorinda and Rupert were lifted with all 
tenderness into the car. The Marchese then entered. 
The door was closed, and the car glided slowly away. 

Marcella, with dry eyes and vacant face, was still 
seated on the ground. She had said nothing, and had 
made no movement when Glorinda was taken from her. 

When Miss Lancaster recovered her senses, she said 
to General Bellamy, 

" Tell me how it happened." 

He replied grimly, 

" Miss Tucker can doubtless tell you." 

Hearing her name spoken, Marcella looked up and 
said : 

" She is dead. It was my fault." 

"It was you who suggested - bathing here?" the 
General asked. 

" No, it was Glorinda who suggested that. But I 
could have stopped her, and I didn't. If I had told 
her that Captain Lest range would be displeased she 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


232 

wouldn't have done it. It was to annoy Captain 
Lestrange that I let her do it." 

" What happened then ? ’’ 

" She was killed. The gypsies came in and attacked 
us. That was my fault, too. I made them get excited. 
Glorinda would have been all right by herself." 

She rose to her feet. General Bellamy noticed that 
her right arm was hanging helplessly. 

" What’s wrong with your arm ? " 

" It’s broken. The woman did that." 

"You must have it set." 

She answered drearily, 

" It doesn’t matter. I am going to kill myself." 

She stood for a time looking about her listlessly. 
Then her eyes caught sight of her tower, and she gazed 
at it as if fascinated. She moved slowly away in the 
direction of the house. The tower seemed to be 
drawing her on, and she kept her eyes fixed on it. 

General Bellamy threw a glance at Miss Lancaster; 
he wished to see what effect Marcella’s threat had had 
on her. Miss Lancaster had been listening, but appeared 
to have taken no notice. When she saw General Bellamy 
looking at her, she said in a low voice, 

" Wicked and blind ! Wicked and blind ! " 

" Who is ? " 

" I, Susan Lancaster. Wicked and blind ! Glorinda 
is dead, and I have killed her." 

General Bellamy took her arm gently. " She is not 
dead. Come to the house and lie down. Are you strong 
enough now ? " 

She reiterated dully. 

"Wicked and blind ! " 

Then suddenly Marcella’s parting words seemed to 
have penetrated to her understanding. She asked 
anxiously, 

" What did that girl say as she was leaving ? ’’ 

" She said she was going to kill herself." 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


233 

Miss Lancaster stopped short. She seemed from her 
expression to be trying to clear her thoughts. 

" Tell me again, Jacky.” 

" She said she was going to kill herself. To commit 
suicide/* 

She still seemed to be groping for an elusive idea. 

“ Why ? ” she asked. 

The General replied, very simply and gently, 

“ She thinks that your niece is dead.” 

She looked up at him. 

" I think so, too.” 

“ She thinks that she killed your niece.” 

" But she didn't. I did/* 

" I suppose she doesn’t want to keep on living without 
her.” 

“ Did she love her so much ? ’* 

" Yes.” 

“ So did I. I loved her too. And it was I that 
killed her, Jacky. That girl must not kill herself. 
Has she gone mad ? ” 

“ I think so.” 

" Then she must not kill herself. I am going to take 
care of her. She loved Glorinda. Jacky, come.” 


CHAPTER XXX 


The Marchese had been obliged to decide in a moment 
whether to render first aid to his patients at the Villa 
Stellini, or to transport them to the Hospital. Rupert's 
case he knew it would be impossible to cope with on the 
spot. To deal with the internal injuries, the breaking of 
the newly healed tissues, which he believed him to have 
sustained, the whole staff and apparatus of the operating 
room, assistants, nurses, chloroform, dressings, all in 
efficient simultaneous combination, would be required. 
It was imperative too that the operating surgeon should 
be put in possession of the previous history of the case 
which the Marchese alone could impart. To move 
Rupert was an urgent necessity. Had Glorinda been 
the only one to be dealt with, the Marchese might have 
attempted to render some immediate assistance. But as 
matters were, and with Rupert, it might well be, in 
momentary danger of death, the Hospital was the only 
resource. There the patients could both receive treat¬ 
ment at the same time, and without one case delaying 
the other. 

By the Marchese’s orders the car was being driven 
slowly. But the country roads were rough, and the car 
never ceased to oscillate gently on its springs. Surgical 
instruments were available in the ambulance, and there 
was sore temptation to use them ; but to handle them in 
a swaying car would not have been justifiable except 
under war conditions. 

The Marchese seated himself on the narrow turn-down 
seat which was hinged to the door of the car, and watched 
his patients anxiously. His rapid preliminary diagnosis 
had led him to fear the worst, but he could not tell with 
certainty without the cruel aid of the probe and the 
knife. 


234 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 235 

When he looked at Glorinda, it was as if every ideal 
of his life lay in its mortal agony. The love of beauty 
that had haunted him from boyhood, and the maturer 
reverence that had come to him with advancing years, 
had found their apotheosis in Glorinda. Her beauty 
had been to him a vision of the Divine Truth. It was 
possible that she might survive ; but even if she did not 
survive, he felt that such perfection could not but, 
somehow, mysteriously, attain immortality, which is 
the meed of perfection. 

And the second thing that he had loved with passion¬ 
ate devotion was the body, the perishable human frame¬ 
work. That too, with all its imperfections and weak¬ 
nesses, its pitiful helplessness against circumstance, 
its strivings, with the aid of its poor limited senses, to 
come into touch with the soul of all things, had been to 
him a medium through which one might snatch fleeting 
glimpses of the divine and universal. 

Glorinda, wounded in the left temple, had been laid 
upon her right side, to avoid pressure on the injured part. 
Rupert, whose injuries were on the right of his body, was 
lying on his left side. Thus placed, they faced each other 
across the narrow passage which divided the two beds. 

The Marchese rose, and went to Rupert, and wiped the 
beads of perspiration from his forehead. Then he held 
Rupert's wrist, and felt its flickering pulse. Turning to 
Glorinda, he saw that she had regained consciousness. 
Her eyes were fixed on Rupert. There was a movement 
of her hand, which the Marchese interpreted. He 
guided her hand and placed it in Rupert's. When 
Glorinda’s hand was placed in Rupert's, Rupert’s hand 
closed on it, and he opened his eyes, and looked into 
Glorinda's face. 

The Marchese knelt down in the narrow passage and 
supported the clasped hands. 

Rupert and Glorinda gazed long and silently into each 
other's eyes. At last Rupert summoned strength to 


236 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

speak. His breath was laboured and his words came 
fitfully: 

“ You—were—hurt/' 

“No,” she said. Her thoughts struggled through an 
obscuring mist. She had something that she wished to 
say, something that had been in her mind since the night 
before. She had looked forward joyfully to a fuller 
confession of her folly, but now it was difficult to speak. 
Her brain seemed every now and then to reel with a 
horrid faintness. She summoned up all her strength. 
Her lips moved and Rupert waited, listening eagerly. 
At last she was able, slowly and with great effort, to 
utter the words, 

“ I was wrong.” 

Rupert shook his head and replied, 

“You were right—always right—always the dearest 
— most beautiful.” 

“ Yours,” she said, and her face was irradiated with a 
happy smile. 

She was silent for a little, to collect her thoughts, and 
summon up her energy. Then she spoke again. 

“ Rupert, you are going to-” 

“ Yes, dearest ? ” 

“ Going to be-” 

“ Yes ? ” 

“ Mine. For ever.” 

A smile of infinite love and happiness fleeted over her 
face. Exhausted, she closed her eyes. 

The car was now gliding along the narrow streets in 
the middle of the city. Suddenly Glorinda’s eyes 
opened, and she started up to a sitting position. 

“ Listen,” she said, raising her hand. “ It is 
Giovinezza.” 

The car had overtaken a procession of Black Shirts 
and the Fascisti chorus echoed between the high walls 
of the narrow streets. 



THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


237 


“ Giovinezza, Giovinezza, 

Primavera di bellezza.” 

“ Youth, Youth, Springtime of Beauty .” 

Glorinda looked at Rupert, and smiled to call his 
attention to the singing. But Rupert was no longer 
conscious of anything. His eyes were closed. A deep 
flush flooded his face, and was succeeded by a sudden 
pallor. And then over his face came a change, a deep 
mysterious change, which Glorinda, looking at him, 
could not understand. The Marchese was supporting 
her, pleading with her to lie down, and be still. But she 
looked helplessly at the Marchese for him to tell her what 
had happened. He gently loosed her arms from him, 
and laid her down. For an instant he turned, and gazed 
searchingly into the glazing eyes of Rupert. Behind 
him he heard a low wail. 

“ Rupert.” 

He turned to look. Glorinda, her arms stretched out 
towards Rupert, was falling off her couch. Her head 
was nearly touching the floor. The Marchese restored 
her to the couch. He felt her pulse, her heart; both 
were at rest. 

Outside, between the lofty houses, still echoed the 
chorus, 

“ Giovinezza, Giovinezza, 

Primavera di bellezza.” 

The Marchese knelt down in the narrow passage, and 
joined again the hands of Rupert and Glorinda. Youth, 
youth, and the spring-time of beauty lay there before 
him, dying, perhaps already dead. 

The ambulance overtook the rear of the procession, 
and the driver sounded his horn to clear the street. 
The rearmost men of the Black Shirts turned to see what 
vehicle was claiming precedence of them. When they 
caught sight of the black hoods of the Misericordia, a 
whispered order passed along the ranks. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


238 

“ Silence, it is the Misericordia.” 

Their song died away. The noise of marching ceased. 
They halted and stood to attention. A deep silence fell 
on the street. 

The ambulance drew up at the arched entrance of the 
old hospital, and two attendants came out. But the 
Marchese descended from the ambulance and held up 
his hand. 

“ I fear they are both dead." 

His friend, the Count Varenna, the Black Shirt com¬ 
mandant, came up to him with enquiring eyes. 

“ It is the Signorina Swift, ” said the Marchese." Your 
Glorinda, and her lover. He is dead, and she too, I 
fear.” 

" Our Glorinda ? Marchese, you dare not say 
that.” 

The Black Shirts who were standing near had caught 
the Marchese’s words, and all along the column the 
whispered message passed from man to man : 

“ It is our Glorinda. She is dead.” 

The four little girls ran up. 

" They say it is our Glorinda. Is she coming with us 
to Rome ? ” 

The Marchese laid his hand on Maria's head and spoke 
gently : 

“ No, dearest ones. Non i Roma. E morte. It is 
not Rome. It is death.” 

The little girls turned and looked into each other’s 
eyes, for confirmation of the terrible truth. They were 
young Latins, and the facts of life and death were not 
hidden from them. Their heads drooped, and their tiny 
rounded arms were raised to cover their eyes. And first 
Maria and then the others were rent by passionate 
sobbing. 

The Marchese drew down his cowl over his face, and 
turned to the driver. 

“ Drive into the hospital courtyard,” he ordered. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 239 

The ambulance moved slowly through the old arch¬ 
way. The Fascisti stood, with heads bowed, in silence. 
Their young eyes remained fixed on the grey ambulance 
until it disappeared, and when it passed from their view, 
a great wave of sound rose from them, that was a cry, 
and a prayer. 


CHAPTER XXXI 


" Her Majesty leaves hospital to-day/’ Marcella 
announced, very reverentially, with a new softness in 
her tones. 

General Bellamy and Miss Lancaster looked at each 
other. 

" It is not Her Majesty, Marcella dear,” said Miss 
Lancaster. “ It is Glorinda, our Glorinda, who is 
coming.” 

Marcella dropped her eyes to her knitting. Her face 
wore a tiny smile of self-complacent superiority. They 
were good people, General Bellamy and Aunt Susan, 
but they were perhaps a little bourgeois. Yes. Bour¬ 
geois was the word. Marcella, who was a Lady-in- 
Waiting, felt it her duty to be gracious to them when 
they betrayed their ignorance. 

Presently she looked up again. 

“ The Queen and the Prince Consort,” she remarked. 

Miss Lancaster looked at her gravely. 

“ Not the Prince Consort, my dear. I have already 
told you that the Prince Consort is not coming.” 

“ Why is he not coming ? ” 

Rising from her chair, Miss Lancaster crossed the 
room to Marcella. She laid her hand on Marcella’s 
arm. 

” Marcella,” she said gently, “ you must try to 
remember. There is no Prince Consort.” 

" Why ? There ought to be.” 

" I have told you before. The Prince Consort died.” 

240 


241 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 

‘ Prince Rupert is dead ? ” she asked. 

" Yes. He is dead.’* 

Marcella incredulous, shook her head vaguely. 
Presently her reflections reverted to their former course. 
The General and Aunt Susan were dear people, but at 
their age the new atmosphere of Court life was naturally 
bewildering. A little tactful guidance was required ; 
one must be patient. 

" The Queen of the World/' she insisted, with quiet 
authority. Then she resumed her knitting. 

In Miss Lancaster's mild eyes a new quality of watch¬ 
fulness had been bom. In abject penitence she had 
guarded Marcella by day and night since the hour of the 
tragedy at the old Roman bath. It had been a terrible 
task at first, but she had succeeded. Marcella had 
been brought safely through a crisis in which her only 
thought had been of self-destruction. 

Glorinda’s life, Marcella’s reason, these two things 
had swayed in the balance for seven days. And Glor- 
inda's life had been spared. But how did it stand with 
Marcella's reason ? These days of fevered dementia had 
burnt up some fiery ingredient in Marcella's brain. 
Never more would she be the Marcella of old, the girl of 
fierce indignation and stormy contempt. Her desires 
had attained their blissful consummation. Calm, 
assured, exultantly servile, she worshipped adoringly 
at the shrine of the young Queen whom her stricken 
fancy had created. 

Would Miss Tucker ever be quite normal again. Miss 
Lancaster had asked the Marchese. Had she ever been 
quite normal ? the Marchese rejoined. At any rate. 
Miss Tucker must see Miss Swift, he advised. The 
Signorina Glorinda had a noble and compelling per¬ 
sonality ; Miss Tucker had become very docile, and time 
was a great healer. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


242 

Thus the little party in the drawing-room awaited 
Glorinda's arrival. And Marcella, as she waited, 
knitted without ceasing. Her needles seemed to operate 
independently of her intelligence, with the same dry 
fury that had once possessed her brain. But now and 
again her lips moved, and with her self-complacent little 
smile she would say to herself : 

" The Queen of the World.” 

The General looked at his watch, rose from his chair, 
looked again at his watch, went out of the loggia to see 
down the avenue, returned to the drawing-room, looked 
at his watch. 

“ Oh, my dear Jacky, do stop fidgeting,” Miss Lan¬ 
caster protested nervously. 

But General Bellamy, irrepressibly excited, rose again 
to go out. 

“ Jacky, if you’ll stop fidgetingj’ll tell you something.” 

" WeU, what is it ? ” 

“ I have had a letter from Sir Robert. He is coming 
out to fetch Glorinda home.” 

“ Is she to stay with him in London ? ” 

" He has adopted her.” 

The General retorted emphatically : 

" Susan, if I know Glorinda, she’ll never leave you.” 

" Yes, she will. I shall have Marcella, you see. I 
am no companion for Glorinda.” 

The General meditated. At last he expressed his 
approval. 

“ Gad,” he broke out, “ London is the place for her. 
She’ll make a stir. I should like to be there when she 
is presented at Court.” 

Marcella looked up for an instant from her knitting, 
and gave a gracious little bow. 

” Buckingham Palace,” she said, primly. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


243 


Miss Lancaster resumed. 

" Sir Robert will be arranging about a memorial for 
poor dear "Rupert/* 

“ Prince Rupert/' Marcella gently corrected her. 

That was Marcella's way now. She would sit there 
knitting furiously, and every now and then she 
would look up and intervene, and with a quiet little 
word set everybody right. 

The General jumped up from his chair. 

“ Here she comes," he exclaimed. 

The hum of a motor-engine grew louder as Glorinda’s 
car came up through the avenue of cypresses. General 
Bellamy ran out into the loggia. Miss Lancaster 
followed quickly. Marcella, goodnaturedly deprecating 
this uncourtlike speed of movement, followed with 
ceremonious gravity. An open car drew up at the 
loggia. The Marchese descended from the car and tume‘d 
to give his hand to Glorinda. But Glorinda leaped to 
the ground, using neither the Marchese’s hand nor the 
step of the car. 

“ Oh, how splendid it is to be here again," she 
cried. 

She threw her arms round her aunt in an embrace 
of characteristic fervour. The Marchese stood by, 
smiling his elderly smile and twisting his waxed 
moustaches. 

“ If she is to behave so recklessly," he reflected, “ it 
is just as well that I arranged for that extra week in 
hospital." 

Glorinda turned to him.. 

'• This wicked man," she laughed, “ is responsible for 
keeping me all those ages in hospital. I forgive you, 
Marchese. I loved the hospital. Oh, the goodness of 
everybody ! But I wouldn't be a nurse for anything in 
the worlch” 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


244 

She moved towards the door that divided the loggia 
from the drawing-room. A small quaint figure in the 
background dropped a profound curtsy. 

“ Why, it’s Marcella." 

She ran to Marcella and threw her arms round her and 
kissed her. 

Marcella looked up shyly into her face. 

“ Your Majesty is very good to me." 

“ Oh, don’t, Marcella, don’t. I won’t have it. I’m 
Glorinda, just Glorinda." 

Marcella acknowledged the condescension with a 
demure little bow. 

“ Is His Royal Highness coming ? ’’ she asked. 

Glorinda looked at her searchingly; then turned to 
her aunt, who explained gently : 

“ She does not always understand. She means 
Rupert." 

“ Prince Rupert. The Prince Consort," Marcella 
corrected her. 

A sudden mist swept over Glorinda’s eyes. Her 
head drooped, and she turned towards Florence. Out 
there, beyond the City, beyond the shimmering Arno, 
a straight white road led to the cemetery where her 
lover lay. 

The little group of friends moved a small space away, 
as if to leave her more to herself. The men’s heads were 
bowed ; the women’s eyes were fixed on her in love and 
sympathy. Unashamed in her grief as in her joy, 
Glorinda, with the tears coursing down her face, clasped 
her hands and flung out her arms. 

“ Rupert, my Rupert," she sobbed. 

Then suddenly she made a strong effort of self-control. 
She drew herself up and turned to the little silent group. 


THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 


245 

"lam behaving very badly,” she said, with a tremulous 
laugh that held a sob. “ Let us all go in.” 

She shepherded the General and her aunt into the 
house. But Marcella discreetly disengaged herself and 
fell behind. 

The Marchese, still standing by the car, mused grimly. 
Here was the peerless Glorinda still at the outset of her 
career. And what had happened so far ? What were 
the casualties, who were the derelicts already strewn 
in the wake of supreme beauty ? There was Captain 
Lestrange, dead ; Miss Tucker, distraught. In one of 
his beloved Renaissance dramas such a sequence of 
events would have been natural enough, but people 
nowadays lived and died less intensely. In one of the 
old plays, he reflected, in which life raged with uncon¬ 
trolled splendour, the dramatist would have arranged 
for Glorinda to hold the centre of the stage in the last 
scene ; in a comedy she would have been a Queen ; in 
a tragedy she would have lain there dead. But this 
modern atmosphere was perplexing. Things did not 
happen nowadays in that clear-cut way. The old war- 
surgeon morosely reckoned up the casualties again ; 
one dead, one wounded. After all, however, the im¬ 
portant question was, how had Beauty been affected by 
these incidental happenings ? The agonized appeal to 
her dead Rupert ? What significance had that in relation 
to Glorinda’s swiftly developing character ? A memory 
so keen and precious, on the threshold of adult life, 
could be counted on to produce an effect very profound, 
very lasting. He could see no Cleopatra now in Glor- 
inda's future, no fierce ambitious dominating woman. 
Might it be that the evil spell had been broken by her 
lover’s sacrifice ? 

He turned to Marcella, the demure little figure that 
stood there waiting to escort him, a guest of rank, to the 
Royal Presence. She had been the little Mephistopheles, 


246 THE SHAMELESS INNOCENT 
that one ; she had been possessed, blindly mischievous ; 
but now her vehemence had burnt itself out. There was 
a lambent gleam in her dark eyes. The Marchese knew 
that she was happy in her visions, happy in her dreams 
of the grave splendours and dignities that awaited the 
beautiful girl whom she loved. 





















































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